Wishmistress
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: What if there were good djinn as well as evil djinn? After a dramatic encounter with a familiar Persian king and Zoroastrian sorcerer, a female djinn on the side of good is summoned into the modern world and faces the evil djinn while trying to grant selfless wishes to people. But what will happen when she falls for the young man who awoke her? Novella.
1. Introduction

**A/N:** The Muslims believe in the djinn as much as the ancient Persians did, but Islamic spiritual beliefs say that there are good djinn and neutral djinn as well as evil djinn. It is also believed by some that djinn, or genies, can be female as well as male. The _Wishmaster_ movies are not especially good, but the concept of a djinn granting wishes for a price intrigues me, and I thought I'd try my own spin on the _Wishmaster_ story, based closely off of the first movie.

By the way, my knowledge on the Islamic views of the djinn is scant at best, so please forgive me if I get something wrong about the Muslim view of the djinn. I'm just trying to create my own colorful story here.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Wishmaster_, though if I did I would improve upon its bad qualities, but I do own this particular story.

* * *

"_Ancient spiritual beliefs of Persia and Islam state that when God created the angels through light, and man and woman on the earth, fire created the mysterious wish-granting beings called the djinn. It was popularly, and infamously known, that many djinn were pure dark and evil, and would always twist a granted wish to harm or kill the person who made the wish, or someone who was close to the wisher. If a djinn was roused on Earth, he or she would grant the awakener three wishes at no harm to that person, but on the granting of the third, a portal would open and the unholy legions of the djinn would emerge to terrorize mankind and rule the Earth._

"_Of course, one thing that was common knowledge to Muslims, but not Persians, was that some djinn were not evil at all, but good, and even holy. Some djinn preferred to use their wish granting for the betterment of mankind, though their wishes still came at a price, but not a twisted price like with the evil djinn. They, too, would grant three wishes to one who awoke them, but upon the granting of the third, if the wishes were selfless enough, the hallowed djinn would enter the world through the same portal and create wonders for the good men and women of the Earth and purge it of the impure and unrepentant sinners that unwittingly helped the evil djinn._

"_It's also said that there were even neutral djinn, genies that didn't take either side, neither holy nor unholy, and preferred to live the lives of their own choice. They would not take part in any battle between good and evil, and when they granted wishes, the consequences could go either way; they could be positive, like from a good djinn, or negative, like from an evil djinn. They also had little desire to create wonders before an adoring humankind, nor did they want to ravage and rule the Earth. They just wanted to live and let live, not caring what way the balance of the universe went, and to go their own way._

"_This is not the story of a neutral djinn._

"_But it is the story of a good djinn who comes out of the void that is the prison of the djinn and is willing to grant wishes for her awakener. Yes, this djinn is a female, and a most radiantly beautiful one, too. Her name is Victoria, and she shines with the light of God Himself._

"_It is also the story of a certain evil djinn who has frequented the Earth before, and has killed and tortured the souls of many greedy, foolish, or selfish people who wished for things that shouldn't have been theirs, and who has also been foiled more than once by a few young women who awoke him, but figured out intelligent ways to trap him within the fire opal that was his prison once again. His name is Nathaniel, and he is always eager to find a way to bring his evil brethren into the world and destroy all that is green and good._

"_Here, the evil Wishmaster and the good Wishmistress come to a head ultimately, and fight a titanic battle of the spirits for the dominance of the world and the welfare of the human race. But this story doesn't begin with their battle. Numerous people ask for things from both genies, and face whatever consequences come with the wishes, be they gentle admonitions or twisted tortures. And the very beginning of the story doesn't begin in modern times, like the rest of the story takes place in._

"_It begins in the same place where Nathaniel's story began, in a small Persian kingdom, ruled by a king who is awed by magical wonders. And it begins with a certain sorcerer who approves no more of good djinn walking the face of the Earth than evil djinn, Zoroaster."_


	2. Forbidden Wonders

_**Chapter 1: Forbidden Wonders**_

* * *

_1127 A.D. Persia..._

It was an indeterminate number of months before the coming of Nathaniel that the same Persian king who awoke him roused Victoria by unknown means and brought her out into the world of man and woman. He had been shocked at first, and then astonished, to see this lovely form before him. She stood head and shoulders taller than him, and had long waves of black hair. Her face was kind, with dark eyes, a nice smile, a perfect-looking nose, and pink lips. She was dressed in a dark blue dress, almost translucent, so he could see that her physical figure was as perfect as her face, and her feet bore low-heeled gray shoes that revealed the tops of her feet.

She bowed before him and said, "You awoke me and brought me to the Earth. I am honored to be summoned by you, king of Persia."

The king blinked in surprise. "How do you know who I am?" he asked, "If I may be so bold?"

She smiled again. "I know many things by instinct when one summons me. 'Tis true for all the djinn and djiniri who come out of the void."

The king's eyes widened. "You are a djinn?" he asked. "Or rather a djiniri, a female djinn? Then the legends are true after all! The djinn are for real! I did not originally believe them, for I have always been something of a pragmatist. Does this mean that you can grant me wishes? Anything I ask for?"

"Indeed," she said, "Because you are the one who awakened me, you may have as many as three wishes. But heed this warning, Your Majesty: every wish given to a djinn comes with a price. With everything you gain by wishing for it, you lose something, or someone close to you loses something."

"Ah," the king said, uncertain, "Well, then I suppose I should wish for something that isn't likely to have a lasting effect on my people, or on myself, right?"

"It is your choice what you wish for, not mine," the djiniri said carefully, "Choose your desire carefully, and choose your words carefully, as well. The better the clarity in your sentence, the closer your wish will be to exactly what you want. Make your first wish whenever you are ready to do so."

The king thought about it. "I wish for my kingdom's unrelenting enemies to be crushed and destroyed like the finger of God Himself destroyed the heathen nations that dwelt where the nation of Israel stood. Can you grant that, m' lady?"

The djiniri didn't look entirely happy with this wish, but she bowed before him again and said, "As you wish. One of your best armies is even now riding out to defeat your worst enemies."

"How will I know when the wish is fulfilled?" the king asked.

"Only time will tell," she answered, "Be patient, and your answer will come to you."

The king waited about an hour or so, keeping up his business with the people in his throne room. After said amount of time passed, finally, news came in from one of the king's messengers that his forces had succeeded in defeating his foes throughout the Middle East. The king was now officially a believer.

"I thank you, O great djiniri!" he said, getting up from his throne and bowing before the djinn. "You have made one of my greatest wishes come true!"

"Do not bow to me, O king," she replied, "I am the servant, and you are the ruler. But be prepared for whatever repercussions this wish brings with it!"

"I'll do my best, m' lady," said the king confidently. Then, suddenly, the messenger returned with some not so good news. He explained that some of the stronger folks and soldiers of his enemy nations had escaped the battle with their lives, and they had made a vow to get vengeance on Persia one day.

The king was disappointed to hear these words, but he knew he couldn't pass all the blame on to the djiniri. She _had_ warned him, after all. He politely dismissed the messenger and tried to apologize to the djiniri.

"You should not apologize for what you wish for," she said. "Whether a wish turns out more good or more bad, an apology cannot undo it. I do not have the power to undo wishes unless one has at least one wish left and wishes to 'un-wish' the previous wish."

"Well," the king said, "My wish did not entirely turn out for the worse, so I suppose I should be grateful for that."

"Indeed," said the djiniri, "for I am not of the evil race of djinn like so many others are. I am one of pure heart and unending selflessness, and I encourage you to make wishes that are more helpful than harmful to others."

The king looked at her in amazement. "What is your name, O djiniri?"

"My name is Victoria," the djinn replied.

"Well," said the king thoughtfully, "I want my second wish to be something that will bring awe to my people and I, and I want the third to be something that can help my people thrive and survive as one of the greatest nations in the world."

"Then make your second wish," said Victoria.

"Give my whole court and I a light show, Victoria!" said the king. "Show us wondrous images of light and sound!"

"As you wish," she said, and at once, the torches seemed to go out of their own accord in the chamber. The people were startled, wondering what was going on.

Then, from the hands of the djiniri, which looked delicate but were in fact much stronger than any human hands, white light started to pour outwards, and whisperings were heard coming from them. The king and his court indeed did stare in astonishment. The lights then took shape and became spirit-like wisps that swarmed throughout the courtroom.

The king was wide-eyed and smiled. These spirits were awesome to look at. The men and women in his throne room were astonished, too, but they found themselves dodging and ducking the spirits constantly. It was a kind of wonder that had not been seen before on the Earth since Old Testament times when God performed miracles through His own power and the hand of Moses. The king shouted that it was beautiful, staring as Victoria seemed to glow with bright light that shone like the full moon at its brightest.

Then, suddenly, the spirits turned into skull-faced ghosts and pounced on everyone in the room, including the king, everyone except the djiniri. Everyone shrieked in surprise and alarm, even His Majesty. The ghosts vanished, and all was dark in the room again, until the djinn's power allowed the torches to re-ignite.

The nervous people started to run out of the room, afraid to be near the djiniri any longer. The king composed himself and asked Victoria, "What _was_ that? Are you trying to kill my people with our own fear?"

"Nay," she said straight-faced, "When one asks for supernatural wonders to be shown to him, especially from a being such as myself, or God, for that matter, he must expect to be frightened out of his wits sooner or later."

"Oh," the king said as it dawned on him, "I suppose that was the price of my second wish, then."

"It was," admitted Victoria. "But be careful with your third wish. Clarify if very carefully, if you do not want to regret the repercussions of it. I cannot grant you a fourth wish."

"All right, then," said the king, "This is the most selfless wish I can make for myself and my kingdom. I wish-"

"NO! STOP, YOUR MAJESTY!" a voice suddenly yelled from the other end of the room. "Do _not_ make that third wish, at all costs, I beg you!" They looked across the room and saw a bearded man dressed in black robes and a black magician's hat striding towards them. Victoria was particularly taken back by his sudden arrival.

"Zoroaster!" she said, her voice trembling, "Please, I beg you, do not send me back to the dark void with my evil brothers and sisters!"

"What do you want of us, sorcerer?" the king asked. "I've already made two wishes with mixed results. I want to make my last one a wish that will change my nation and my people for the better-"

"And by wanting that, do you wish to risk the whole world becoming subject to something it is not at all prepared for?" Zoroaster shouted, then more quietly, he said, "No more wishes, please."

"Zoroaster," said Victoria, "This great man wants to make up for his mistakes with his first two wishes, and you know that granting wishes of selfishness, death, and destruction, and other vile things saps my strength and leaves me vulnerable to the muscle of the evil djinn. Surely you cannot fail to recognize that good must prevail over evil!"

"Perhaps," said Zoroaster, "But the world is not ready for whatever you and your good brothers and sisters have in store for it, anymore than it is prepared for an evil djinn to unleash the legions of the evil djinn upon the Earth. And one more wish," he directed at the king, "is all this being needs to achieve her goal of purifying a world that is not ready for purification. God may frown on my abilities as a sorcerer, but I still hold true to the fact that all men and women, no matter how vile or corrupt, should have a chance to find salvation through God's mercy, and I am willing to burn in Hell if necessary in order to prevent that from happening!" Then, he suddenly produced a stone from his pocket, blue as the light of the angels, and the hottest fire. It was a sapphire, the largest one ever dug up and chiseled into a beautiful stone. Victoria looked at it in fear and screamed, "NO, SORCERER! DO NOT DO THIS TO ME!" But Zoroaster ignored her begging and spoke a Zoroastrian spell of enchantment as he held up the sapphire.

In a few seconds, it seemed to the king that the djiniri was being stretched and pulled into the stone by some kind of magic. Shortly, she was trapped in what would be her most beautiful but confining prison for centuries. Zoroaster held the stone before the king and said, "This stone must be kept hidden from all prying eyes at all costs, and I will see to it that it remains that way, Your Majesty." He bowed courteously before him and left the castle.

The king watched him leave, and then, when he was sure no one could see or hear him, he wept for a long time.

_It was, of course, several months later, that the same king, by some misfortune, awoke another djinn, this time the evil Nathaniel, and made two wishes before him, too. But because Nathaniel was evil and twisted, and the king was initially unaware of this despite the djinn's much uglier appearance, his wishes didn't just leave mixed results; the king's whole court was destroyed through torture and mutilation after he wished for more "astonishing wonders," thinking that the djinn would show him something like Victoria had. And of course, Zoroaster, distressed at the fate of the king's court, returned once again, and banished Nathaniel as well, this time into a large fire opal as red as a ruby, and put it in a separate hiding place._

* * *

**A/N:** The light show that was the king's second wish is loosely based off of the "miracle of the ark" sequence in _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, except nobody died painfully while watching it, and nobody had to shut their eyes to survive. I just thought it was cool to write, as well as easy. Djiniri, by the way, is the Islamic word for a female djinn.


	3. A Precarious Discovery

**A/N:** I am not an expert on archaeology, so I'll be describing it in this chapter in simple and short terms here.

* * *

_**Chapter 2: A Precarious Discovery**_

* * *

_Present day..._

Howard Daniel was wiping some sweat from his brow and drinking some cold bottled water as his assistants continued to dig up and display several interesting findings in northern Saudi Arabia. He was an archaeologist, a dignified and popular man of middle age who enjoyed how his findings contributed to the museum he donated his artifacts to. In his philosophy, if it came from the depths of the earth from long ago, it wasn't just a piece of history, but it was also a great work of art. Even the things he found that appeared more ugly were things he valued as potential landmarks in the progress of mankind.

He watched from a position atop a small hill as his assistant, Gerald, helped the diggers with the dirty work of archaeology. Howard would have gladly helped out himself, but he couldn't; he had been promoted to supervisor, his present job, and supervisors weren't allowed to help directly with the actual digging unless there was an emergency, like if one of the more important workers received an injury or suddenly became sick. It wasn't entirely fair, he thought. He wanted to help his men with the work so they wouldn't get so worn out and stressed from working in the heat so long.

At that moment, his son, David, and daughter, Kristine, who liked to be called Krissy, came out of a nearby tent and walked towards him. David was a handsome young man of about twenty-three years old, with short brown hair, green eyes, a lean mouth, eyeglasses on his eyes, and the personality of a saint, almost, anyway. Howard admired the way David had always helped charitable causes and studied hard at college for a degree in archaeology like his dad, but David could also be somewhat quiet and lackluster in manner. Kristine, a blond, blue-eyed, pretty young lady, was very nice, and protective of her family, but wasn't always in the best of moods herself. Maybe this was due to the fact that two years after Kristine's birth, nineteen years ago, their mother, Stephanie, had cheated on Howard with another woman. Howard had been shocked by the fact that not only did she cheat on him, but she never told him she was a lesbian, and thus more attracted to women than men. Feeling betrayed, Howard had filed for divorce, and won custody of both their children. Stephanie disappeared somewhere in Canada after that, presumably with her lover.

David and Kristine reached their father. "Dad," said David, "Krissy and I were just wondering if this dig will be over soon. It's getting hotter out here, and the fan and our ice water can only help so much with that."

"Yeah, dad," said Kristine, "You know I can handle the heat pretty well, but if we don't get to somewhere where I can stop sweating and have a shower soon, I'm going to stink like a slob, and David doesn't like to smell sweat any more than I do."

"Relax, kids," said Howard reassuringly, "It's only going to go on for another fifteen minutes, then we'll shut down for the day. We've been making out like bandits here, though we can't let the Saudi Arabian natives know that, because they'll think we really _are_ bandits if they do. Now go back to the tent, please. I promise that you can both shower soon, and then, if nothing comes up back in America, we'll play a nice game of Scrabble together on our first night home. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good to me, dad," said David, "I've always enjoyed playing Scrabble."

"Well, I can think of a few better ways I can spend my nights," said Kristine, uncertain, "But I'll do it if it means getting some quality time with you again, dad."

With that, they both returned to their tent. Howard watched them go. Like him, they were very nice people who earned the respect of most people they came across. Of course, some people made fun of the way David's full name sounded; "David Daniel" did sound a little peculiar, but Howard had named him David in homage to the biblical hero, King David.

Suddenly, his men became very excited. Two of them began shouting for him to come over and look at what they found. Howard stepped over and elbowed his way through some of them to see what they had.

They had found two gold cases, each shaped like an eight-pointed star, that looked like some kind of boxes. They were identical in every way that was visible to the naked eye. Howard stared at them in stunned disbelief.

"Whoa!" shouted one of his men, who was something of a miser, "We're rich! I bet the museum will pay triple for these perfect gold boxes!"

"Relax, man, will ya!?" said another of the men, "Shut up!"

"Well, we're rich, ain't we?" the first man insisted. He started to whoop and holler and dance about like a moron.

Howard examined both cases closely. "I've never been as greedy for money as Steve is," he said at last, "but I think he's partly right. This might go down very well with the museum. Michael will certainly want to take a look at them himself. But it isn't just the gold, or even the intricate designs, that fascinate me. Both of these boxes are sealed shut, and I don't know how to open them. At the same time, however, whatever's in these things could be dangerous in some way or other. No one besides us should know about these particular findings until I've had a chance to examine them thoroughly, _and carefully_. Do not let anyone have access to these artifacts until I get back to the States, and have confirmed their safety for display in the museum. Understand, everyone?" He looked them all in the eyes.

"Understood, Mr. Daniel," each man said in turn.

"Then we can all get rich!" Steve the miser hollered again, obviously eager for his payment.

"We'll see, Steve," said Howard firmly, "We'll see."

Howard, with assistance from Gerald, carried the cases, which were quite heavy considering they were made of gold, into his private tent where his recovered artifacts were stored in carrying boxes and crates. He found two thick suitcases he used for carrying top secret artifacts and put the items inside, fitting them in so they wouldn't move around in the cases and make any noise. Then he went to his children's tent and announced that the digging was over for this trip, and they would be heading home the next morning.

"Oh, good," said Kristine. "I'm _dying_ for a shower now."

"Hey, dad," asked David, "I heard some of your men act really excited out there shortly before you quit for the day. Did you find something really valuable? Because if you did, I'd sure love to see it."

"I'd love to see it too," said Kristine, "_after_ my shower."

"Sorry, kids," said Howard, "We _did_ find something interesting, but it's not for other people to see just yet, not even you. I have to make sure it's safe before it can be openly revealed to anybody, even Michael the museum curator."

"Oh," said David, a little let down, "Well, we'll respect your wishes, dad. We won't deliberately look at whatever they are."

"Same here, dad," said Kristine.

"Thank you, both of you," said Howard with a smile. "Now, let's clean up camp and get to those showers!"

* * *

The flight back to the States was mostly uneventful. Howard, David and Kristine discussed the fine points of archaeology and the future of the world as they rode the jet plane, when they weren't listening to MP3 players, reading romance novels, or writing in a sudoku travel book. The Daniels were a family that looked forward to a bright future and good things for the human race, and their faith was seldom shaken by those who disagreed with them.

It was late at night when they got home in Springfield, Illinois. They took their time unpacking their stuff and sat down to relax. Howard had put his suitcases with the top secret artifacts in the basement, trusting his kids not to fool around with them. That would turn out to be a mistake.

"So dad," suggested Kristine, "How about that game of Scrabble you promised us?"

"Yeah," said David, "I'd like to have some nice, quiet fun now."

"I'd be happy to," said Howard, going to the cupboard in the living room where they kept their playing cards and board games. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He glanced at it quickly. "Just a minute, guys," he said, "We'll play after this phone call."

"Sure dad," they both said. Howard turned on the phone and talked to the person on the other end.

"Oh, hi, Michael!" he said. "Yeah, we're all doing well. What? What was that?...How important is it? Is she going to be okay?...Yes, Michael, I'll be down there as soon as I can."

Brother and sister knew what that meant. They both looked disappointed. Evidently, this wasn't the first time they had heard their father say something like this on the phone.

Howard hung up and turned toward them. "David, Krissy, I'm sorry, I really am," he said apologetically, "but I have to go down to the university and be a substitute for Dr. Morales. She took sick immediately after supper, and her classes aren't entirely finished. They're also short-handed at the university. I need to fill in for her, possibly for a few days."

"All right, dad," said Krissy sadly, "Like we've always agreed to understand, a colleague at the college is in trouble, and taking care of her problems has to come first. Why wouldn't we understand that?"

"Well," said Howard, "I don't think you two understand as well as you think you do. Sometimes the welfare of others is more important than your own, and you have to be ready to lay down your own desires to help the needy."

"I understand, dad," David said, "I've always understood that people in trouble sometimes have to come before personal, or even family leisure. I just hope that you can do a good job as Dr. Morales' substitute, considering that you already have classes of your own to teach there."

"Yes," said Howard, "It will mean an extra workload until she recovers, and it will be stressful, but I _can_ do it. Well," he said as he put his jacket on, "I'll be back late, probably. Don't wait up for me. You both need your sleep too, you know."

"Okay, dad," his children both agreed. He kissed them goodbye and was soon on his way.

* * *

Kristine looked at David. "So," she asked him, "what do we do now?"

"Well, we could play a little game of our own, Krissy," suggested David, "Just the two of us."

"Why don't we play Twister?" she said. "It's fun to play a physical game like that before we get too old for it."

"I think that game is in the basement," said David. "I'll go get it."

"You don't know where I left it," said Kristine, "I'll help you."

They went down to the basement together. They were about to go for the Twister game when they spotted the big suitcases.

"Hey," said Kristine, "There are those things dad didn't want us to see."

"Yeah," said David, "Can you smell it?"

Kristine sniffed the air. "Smell what?" she asked.

"Strange smells seem to be coming from both cases," said David, "and it doesn't smell like sand, dirt or dust. It's like...like there's something burning inside of them."

"Burning?" Kristine asked quizzically, "You think we should look inside them?"

"Dad said we couldn't look at the contents of these cases," said David. "And yet, I feel as if I'm almost drawn to them, like something's calling to us from them."

"You think something supernatural is in those things, David?" Kristine said skeptically. "I think the heat in Arabia got to you a bit if you believe that."

"Krissy, I don't know if there's something supernatural in there," retorted David, "There probably isn't. But maybe, if _we_ can figure out what's in those cases, dad will be proud of us for moving a step higher in our archaeology expertise, and we may even be rewarded with a scholarship ahead of time or something."

"I'm surprised that you're the more ambitious of the two of us, brother," remarked Kristine, "But if you think we could discover something ingenious in there, I'm willing to help."

"Thanks, Krissy," said David. "Now, there are two cases, and there are two of us. You take that one," he said, pointing to a case, "and I'll take this one." He went to the other case while Kristine went to the first.

"How do we open them?" Kristine asked.

David looked around. "Hey, it looks like dad left the keys within easy reach on the table. It sounds a little careless to me, but maybe he was just too tired, so he forgot to put them away." They each used a key to unlock the cases, and opened them. What they saw inside astonished them.

Within each case was an identical, eight-pointed gold box with intricate patterns and writing etched into it. David and Kristine lifted them out carefully and put them on the table. They lit a bright lamp and took a closer look.

"Good Lord!" said David, "These boxes look like they're decorated with ancient Arabic words and patterns dating back from the ancient years of Persia, Islam, and Zoroastrianism!"

"I'll say!" agreed Kristine. "These items must have been well guarded somewhere once before they were buried in the northern lands of Saudi Arabia. Oh, if only we could open them!"

No sooner did she say that than her vision blurred for a second. David had the same feeling at exactly the same time. He wondered if something had suddenly gone wrong with his glasses. When their vision cleared again, the patterns on top of the boxes seemed to have changed. It looked as if some ingrained lines were pointing to a little button on top. Too curious for their own good, David and Kristine each picked up a pen and used the point to press down on the buttons.

Without warning, the lid of each box (for that's what they truly were) slid open in a circular pattern and left their interiors naked to the world. The siblings looked at each other in surprise, but, once again forgetting the old saying, "Curiosity killed the cat," they felt around inside the boxes. Both their fingers touched something smooth, chiseled, and warm. They pulled them out of the gold boxes and were even more astonished than before.

In his hand, David held an impossibly large, dark blue sapphire. He had never seen one so big _and_ so beautifully carved. He also wondered why it was warm instead of cool. Part of his answer came from the fact that the fire-like smell he had detected came from the jewel.

He looked over to his sister, and saw that she was staring at an almost identical gem of impossible size and beauty, except this stone was a fire opal, and it was as red as blood.

"Oh my God," said Kristine, "I never knew they ever made jewels this big! These must be worth a fortune!"

"Neither did I," admitted David, "I think these gems deserve a good looking-at before we know for sure whether they're safe or not."

"Safe?" said Kristine, "How can a gem be unsafe?"

"I don't know," David replied, "But can you smell it now? The burning smell seems to be coming from the jewels."

Kristine breathed deeply. "Now that you mention it, David, I think I _can_ smell it."

"And consider the fact that these jewels are also warm to the touch," continued David. "Saudi Arabia may be a hot country, but I'd think that after that long plane journey through a cold sky and sitting in this basement for a few hours, they'd feel cool instead of warm."

They both looked closer at their respective gems. David put the sapphire under the lamp and took a very close look. To his confusion, he suddenly saw what looked like something moving inside the jewel. He tapped the crystal gently a few times with his index finger and then his thumbnail. The thing inside moved again, and to his shock, he silently swore that he saw a form like an attractive human face and body. If that was a face, it looked feminine, and it was apparently looking straight at him!

Kristine, meanwhile, was doing similar things with the fire opal. She even blew on it gently, wondering if there was some kind of dust on it that wouldn't easily come off. She was just as shocked as David when something moved within it, too. Another face and body, masculine, looking a little human but much uglier, looked upwards and set its eyes on her!

In their shock, they both dropped the gems on the floor. Kristine screamed for a second.

"Did...did you see that, David?" Kristine asked, petrified.

"Well, since you saw something weird too, then yes, I did see that," replied David. "It was almost like a young woman was trapped in the sapphire!"

"The fire opal looked like it had a big, ugly monster trapped in it!" Kristine replied back.

"Evidently, these gems hold something that the modern world has never seen the likes of before," said David with trepidation.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" said Kristine.

"If you mean that we should have a professional look at these jewels first, then yes, I am," said David. "Perhaps we should do that at the first opportunity tomorrow. Rachel knows a lot about examination of gems, and her lab may be able to give us some answers."


	4. You Awoke Me

_**Chapter 3: You Awoke Me**_

* * *

Rachel Gitzlaff was an old friend of David and Kristine's, who had a job working in a lab as a studious worker with jewels and gems and other exotic stones. David had once been attracted to her, saying that her fiery red hair reminded him of the holy fire of God, even though she wasn't as much into spiritual things as he and his sister were. His polite advances were gently brushed off, however, when she informed him that she was a lesbian, and had already gone through several girlfriends. He was a little sad, but was also grateful that she warned him ahead of time, unlike his absent mother. In fact, Rachel had taken an interest in Kristine once, herself, but Kristine insisted that she didn't practice gay relationships, and when she married, she wanted to marry a man. Nonetheless, brother and sister and best friend got along well with each other, and they were always ready to help each other when in need.

The previous night, David and Kristine had closed the gold boxes, put them back in the cases, locked them, and left them and the keys exactly as their father had left them. They reasoned that they couldn't leave any evidence of their excursion in the basement after their discovery. It wasn't yet time for Howard to find out about what they did. Then, the next morning, after they saw their dad off to work, they took out the hidden gems and drove over to Rachel's office.

As he drove the car, David was wondering about that pretty face he had seen in the sapphire. What would a girl or a woman be doing in a gem? He wondered this and numerous things along the way, and he was sure his sister was, too. Suddenly, while they were waiting at a red light, David experienced a vision of the sapphire and the "woman" inside, and he heard a melodic voice say, "You awoke me."

Startled out of his wits, he accidentally hit the car horn. The red light was still on, so the driver ahead of him naturally assumed that David wanted him to run the red light. "Can't you see, man?" he said, "The stoplight's still on! You know I can't start driving again yet. Have some patience!"

David waved apologetically, feeling a little embarrassed. Kristine asked him, "David, what's the matter?"

"I don't know," David admitted. "I thought I saw the sapphire in my mind's eye, and heard a voice say to me, 'You awoke me.'"

Kristine frowned. "That's strange. But you did say that you thought you saw a moving person inside that jewel. Still, it spooks me, too."

The driver behind them hit his horn. "Will ya wake up already?! The light's green, moron! I don't wanna be late for work!"

"Whoa," said David, "I didn't know time could fly when you're being confused!" He put the car in gear and drove on.

About two minutes later, while driving a short distance on the highway, Kristine was hit with a similar experience. She saw the fire opal up close even though she wasn't looking at it, and a voice that sounded almost demonic intoned, "You awoke me."

"Aaahhh!" she yelled in alarm.

"What's the matter, Krissy?" asked David, looking at her. "Did you just have the same picture I had, or something?"

Another car honked a horn at them. "Watch it, ya dumb bastard!" a middle-aged man yelled from his Ferrari, "This is my favorite car! You almost crashed into it! I'll find out who you are and sue if you do that again!"

"Ah, sue this, jerk!" Kristine shouted, shaking her fist at the man.

"Ah, sue this yourself, broad," the driver shouted.

"Don't intimidate him, Krissy," said David, "This isn't a good time for us to get in trouble with the law."

"Yeah, you're right," she admitted, "But he's still a jerk. Anyway, yes, I did experience a vision like yours, only I saw the opal instead of your jewel, and the voice that said, 'You awoke me,' spoke in a deep growl."

David looked thoughtful. "Now I _know_ we have to get more knowledge about these gems from Rachel," he said. For the rest of the drive they had no more near-accidents.

* * *

At the lab, Rachel, dressed in a white lab coat with the sleeves rolled up over her regular clothes, was intrigued by the gems, and was as astonished as they were at the size of them.

"You said you found these in two gold Persian boxes shaped like stars your father dug up in the Middle East?" she asked them.

"Yes," said Kristine. "Our curiosity got the better of us and we decided to examine the findings ourselves, although dad made us promise not to. Now we want to find out what sort of amazing things are inside those jewels so we can say we had a good excuse for taking them and examining them."

"You mean 'stole' them, don't you," said Rachel. It was not a question. "Really, I love you guys as best friends, but you should know better than to mess around with things like this at your age. And now that you're involving me in this, I could get in almost as big trouble as the two of you."

"You're right, Rachel," admitted David, "You're absolutely right. I guess we just weren't thinking about the word 'steal' when we took them from dad and betrayed his trust. Now we just have to hope and pray that things turn out for the better."

"I don't know if I'll pray for it," said pragmatic Rachel, "But I _will_ hope for it. Not that it'll do a lot of good. Fate can be cruel sometimes, you know that."

Just then, David and Kristine were simultaneously hit by the same epithet they heard before, "You awoke me," one in a melodic tone, the other in a growling snarl, and they saw visions of the close-ups of the gems again. They spaced out for a second and almost fell on the floor.

"Guys?" Rachel asked as if from far away, "Are you all right?"

David shook his head to get the dizziness out of it. So did Kristine. "Yeah, I'm all right, Rachel," David confirmed. "I, uh, just spaced out for a minute for some reason."

"Me too," said Kristine, rubbing her eyes.

"A minute?" said Rachel. "It was more like twenty seconds to me."

"Whatever," said Kristine, "We're fine now. But it's getting late in the morning now," she said, looking at her watch, "David and I have to get to our classes before we're counted as tardy."

"Yes," agreed David. "We'll see you later, Rachel. We'll check with you later today."

"Bye, guys," said Rachel, waving.

"Good luck with those gems," offered Kristine.

David and Kristine piled back into their car and drove to the university.

* * *

After they left, Rachel decided now was as good a time as any to take a look at those gems. "All right, let's see what we've got here," she said to herself. She decided to examine the sapphire first, putting the opal aside for later examination. Putting it under a lamp and a microscope, she took a look at the magnified gem to see what was so special about it.

At first, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The gem was dark, but not so dark that it couldn't be seen through. It also was a pretty shade of blue, the sort of shade that would be tremendously expensive on the open market.

"Hmm," she mused, "It's sure big for a gem, but apart from that I can't see anything special about it." She was about to look for another means to investigate it, when suddenly, she saw something move inside it. A lovely young woman seemed to be inside it, and she was looking up at Rachel's eye through the lens! Rachel was startled by this, to say the least, but she continued to look. The woman seemed to be imploring her for something, as if she wanted release from the gem. Then, the natural sunlight from a nearby window shone on the jewel, reflecting bright light into the lens. Rachel recoiled, briefly blinded in one eye by the brightness.

Then, as the sapphire became even brighter, there were cracking sounds, as if the gem was splitting open. Indeed, it was, for a moment later, the gem seemed to explode, and a blue light shone through the lab. The force of the explosion tore through tables, smashed beakers and vials, broke other tools, and in the chaos, Rachel was badly injured by a combination of flying debris and being thrown off the chair and against the far wall.

Needless to say, the pain hurt like hell to her, but Rachel's head soon cleared. And when it did, she was shocked and alarmed by what she saw next, so much so that she almost forgot her pain.

A beautiful, radiant, youthful woman was kneeling on the floor, breathing hard as if trying to regain lost strength. She wore a blue, translucent dress and gray shoes, and her hair and eyes were as dark as midnight. She looked weak at first glance, but somehow Rachel could tell, possibly from the bluish-white light shining through her, that this person was much stronger than she could ever hope to be. She gasped in alarm and tried to wriggle away from the woman. "No! Whoever you are, I didn't mean anything by prying with that gem! Please don't kill me!"

The woman looked at her mildly. "I am not here to kill you, young lady," she said, and she meant it. "Not unless, of course, you wish for it."

Rachel blanched. "Why would I _wish_ for my own death? I'm in pain right now, but my life isn't exactly in shambles right now!"

The woman gave her a small smile. "It is good to hear that you do not desire death right now, even with your evident injuries. But I am not a human woman, and I have unimaginable powers that can be used to help anyone receive what they wish for."

Rachel frowned at her. "I must be dreaming," she said to herself, then to the supernatural woman, "How can this be so? I don't believe in any damn spiritual stuff! I respect people who do believe in it, but I have no use for it myself! You can't have unspeakable power!"

"My dear," said the woman patiently, "I am a djiniri, a female djinn. My origins are from a combination of Islamic spirituality and Arabian folklore. I can grant a wish to anyone who asks for something. And I can sense that you are in distress right now, and not just from seeing me. You are bleeding and in pain from the sapphire's explosion. Surely you would wish for me to heal your wounds and ease your pain? Most people do not enjoy suffering, even if they go through with it on purpose."

Rachel was almost at wit's end, and her loss of blood wasn't helping matters any. "Well, now that you mention it, yes! I want this pain to go away, and for my cuts to be bandaged or sewn shut or something! I'm not ready to die just yet!"

The djiniri smiled again and bowed her head. "As you wish," she said. Then she moved forward and began to touch Rachel on her head and chest.

"What are you doing?" Rachel demanded.

"Fulfilling your desired wish," the djiniri said blandly. To Rachel's amazement, she actually felt her pain rapidly decreasing, and her wounds closed, and she felt like the blood she lost was being restored to her veins and arteries. Soon, she was feeling just as fine as she had before the gem exploded.

She looked at herself in astonishment. All she needed to do now was wash off the blood that still remained on her healed skin. "Thank you so much," she said, blushing in embarrassment at her doubting the djiniri before. "I don't know what to say! Wow, David and Kristine would be so amazed to see this for themselves!"

"There's no need to thank me," the djiniri said, "But I must thank you, and one of your friends who was just in here, for awakening and freeing me. I believe the one who freed me was the friend named David, because he was a man. I was stifling in that prison Zoroaster put me in so long ago."

"Zoroaster?" Rachel asked, "As in Zoroastrianism?"

"Sort of," the djiniri confirmed, "He was a wizard who did not approve of any of the race of djinn walking the face of the Earth. He locked me in that sapphire after I almost offered three wishes to a Persian king who loved wonders and magic."

"Uh, slow down a little," said Rachel, "This is getting a little too deep for me. So, what are you going to do now, grant me another wish?"

"I am afraid not," said the djiniri, "I must find David, for I have pressing business with him, and I must power up my sapphire cell with selfless and generous wishes from other people besides yourself. But before I leave, you must know that every wish, even the most noble, comes with a price, for things received through supernatural wishes are always better deserved when achieved through work and deeds rather than just speaking a desire to one like me."

"A price?" asked Rachel, suddenly a little nervous again, "What sort of price?"

"Well," said the djiniri, "I must go out into the world to find people who have wishes to offer me, and to do that I have to take the shape and form of a human to blend in, for I could sense when I emerged from the jewel that this era in the world is much more pragmatic and secular than the time I originally came from, and they will not believe their eyes if I look like what I truly am."

"You're…you're not thinking of taking my form, are you, ma'am?" Rachel stuttered.

"No," said the djiniri, "A good djinn can shapeshift through his or her own power and will. They do not need to kiss a person like a neutral djinn would, nor do they have to skin a person's face and put it on over their real one like an evil djinn. But you have seen me for what I truly am, and for that, I am afraid I cannot let you leave this building, at least, not yet."

"What?" exclaimed Rachel, "You intend to _lock me in my own lab?_ I can't go through with that! I had plans for later today! Some of my girlfriends and I were going to go down to the local bar and have some drinks with the guys. I can't let them down!"

"Sorry," said the djiniri, "but that's the rule of asking a djiniri like myself for a wish. I will allow you to leave when I deem the appropriate time has come for you to do so. And I will leave you food and water and something comfortable to sleep on while you are here."

"Food and water? A bed?" Rachel asked suspiciously, "Exactly how long do you intend to keep me sealed in here, anyway?"

"I know not yet," said the djiniri, "It could be half a day, it could be a whole day, it could even be as long as a whole week."

"A WEEK?" Rachel exclaimed even louder. "You goddamn bitch! You can't do this to me-!"

The djiniri rounded on Rachel with an angry flash in her eyes. "Yes, I can do it. And how dare you speak such blasphemy in the face of a holy one! I am certain your parents taught you better manners than that."

Rachel had recoiled at the djiniri's rage, but then she said, "Why shouldn't I say it? Almost everybody in the United States of America talks like that at least sometimes these days! My God, you really are living in the past!"

"NO MORE BLASPHEMY IN MY PRESENCE!" the djiniri intoned in a loud but controlled voice that reeked of righteousness to Rachel. "Now, I must go, for it is evident that you are less grateful for my healing than before, and I must be on my way. In the meantime, I'd suggest you relax your jangled nerves and meditate on what it is to show respect to an all-powerful djiniri." With that, the djiniri retrieved the sapphire, saying something about needing it for her personal business, and then walked out of the lab without another word, and without ever looking back, and walked outside the office building. There, she put on the raiment of an attractive young woman not too dissimilar to her true form, and was on her way.

Sadly, in her concentrating squarely on Rachel, she never noticed the demonic fire opal Rachel had laid aside in another part of the lab, and thus wouldn't know about the evil djinn until after he learned of her presence.

* * *

Back in the lab, Rachel sulked. It wasn't fair. A generous spiritual being takes away her physical injuries and her disbelief in the supernatural, and for it, she got locked in her own lab until God knew when!

She had tried every outside door. None of them would open for her. She tried opening a window, but they wouldn't open, either. Not that it mattered a great deal, because her lab was on the second floor. She had even tried her cell phone to call 911 or one of her friends, but discovered that the line was entirely dead. She couldn't even contact the operator. And no one besides her was in the building at the time, so no one was present to help her.

"Fuck this!" she growled to herself as she sat down in her lab again, dejected. She had found the food, water, and bed in another person's office, so at least the djiniri told her the truth about that. But this was definitely going to be a long and boring wait until the djiniri returned.

Then, she noticed the fire opal on the counter where her shattered microscope was. "_Well,"_ she reasoned, "_I suppose that as long as I have to wait, I can spend some time getting acquainted with the other gem David and Kristine left me. Then they'll have all the answers they want. Besides, maybe this opal has another so-called djinn or djiniri in it who can help me escape this mess."_

Her lamp had been destroyed in the explosion, so she got a flashlight out of a drawer and used it to investigate the red stone. It, too, seemed to have something tiny moving inside it, but without the microscope, it was hard to tell exactly what it was. She picked at the gem with a chisel, wondering if she could break it open.

Then, it too started to make a cracking sound as if it was going to burst. This time Rachel was ready for it, though, and managed to take appropriate cover by the time the explosion occurred.

She looked out from her crouched position. Her lab was an even bigger mess now. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. It'd cost hundreds, if not thousands, to replace all these pieces of equipment! But what she saw crawling on the floor took her breath away again, but this time with a feeling of revulsion and disgust.

A hideous man that looked like he was half-beast was crawling around, trying to grow to his own natural size and strength. He had horns and snakes protruding from his head, and he wore some sort of dark red armor, or maybe that was his hideous hide instead. His fingertips ended in sharp claws. As he stood up to his full height, he picked up the opal and gazed at it for a moment, and then he set his sights on Rachel.

"Hello, young one," he said in a deep growl, but there was almost a kind of seductive reasoning behind the growl, almost as if he was just as generous as the djiniri who had been in there before.

"Are…are you, another djinn?" Rachel asked nervously.

"Yes, I am a djinn," he confirmed, "But how did you know? And what do you mean by 'another djinn?'"

Rachel briefly wondered if she had made a mistake in her choice of words, but she had to proceed now, she knew that. "I released a female djinn called a djiniri, a little while earlier. I got injured in the sapphire's explosion, and she said she could heal me if I just wished for it. So I did, and the pain and bleeding stopped."

"Hmm, fascinating," mused the djinn, "Where is this sapphire, out of curiosity?"

"She took it with her when she left," said Rachel.

"Oh," said the djinn, sounding disappointed, "Do you know her name? I might like to have a word with her."

"She never told me her name," Rachel said. "But she said that for wishing for an end to the pain, not to mention keeping her presence a secret in this world, I'm locked in my own lab until she sees fit to release me. She thinks the modern world can't handle the mysticism of supernatural beings. I probably can't even see my friends David and Kristine again until she releases me!"

"Kristine," said the djinn in satisfaction, "She must be the one who woke me."

Rachel felt a twinge of guilt. Had she just gotten her best friends in trouble they were unprepared for?

"Ah, yes," said the djinn, "So, she healed you. And for that, you are trapped in here until who knows when."

"Yes," said Rachel impatiently.

"You know," he said reasonably, with a smile, "since I am a djinn, too, I can also grant you whatever you desire. Just name it, and I will grant it. And I think I have an idea of what it is already. You don't want to go stir crazy in this place anymore, do you?"

"No, I don't," said Rachel, "I've had enough of being subject to some holier-than-thou bitch who wants to have her own way with the world!"

The djinn briefly reflected on the irony of that statement, and then, "Then speak your wish. You must say it aloud, and then I can grant it."

Rachel composed herself. "I wish to escape this broken lab and go outside where I can be free again!" she said.

The djinn grinned evilly. "As you wish," he said in a pleased snarl.

A second later, an unseen force suddenly grabbed Rachel by the front of her shirt and lab coat, and it hurled her throughout the lab repeatedly. She crashed into a wall where a framed painting was hanging. Then she was flung to the floor, hard. The pain had returned, more intense than before, and she had almost broken her back on the solid floor. It tossed her up to the ceiling, where she crashed and made a dent in it, as well as breaking her nose. Then she was thrown near the broken tables, flying through broken equipment and shattered glass. She was now bleeding worse than before.

"What are you doing to me?" she screamed at the djinn.

He said casually, "Looking for a place where you can successfully escape the building."

"No, NO! I take it back! Stop this, please!" she begged.

"Too late, little one," he said, "I cannot undo a wish unless the wisher is allowed more than one wish, and you, unfortunately, are not." He looked triumphant.

Rachel was tossed about a few more times. Blood started to spatter in several parts of the lab. Finally, she screamed in fear and despair as the djinn's power flung her toward an outside window in the back of the building. She sailed right through the glass, which broke and cut her everywhere, and finally, she fell to the ground, where she broke her neck and died.

The djinn looked quite pleased with his handiwork. Carrying the fire opal, he safely jumped out the window and floated softly to the ground. He held out the opal, and pulled Rachel's soul from her body, trapping her in one of his cell's torture chambers.

"Now it is time to find my Waker," he muttered to himself, "as well as that upstart djiniri who has the nerve to encroach on _my_ territory." He could still recall how to transform into his first human form, as the handsome and seductive Nathaniel Demerest, and he did not want to take Rachel's form at a time like this, so he re-shaped himself into Nathaniel, complete with his expensive suit, tie and shoes, and went out into the world to grant more wishes and wreak more havoc.


	5. Beginning of a Quest

_**Chapter 4: Beginning of a Quest**_

* * *

After their classes were over for the day at the university, David and Kristine met up with each other outside on the steps. "Boy, I'm beginning to wonder if those jewels are having an effect on my mind now," said Kristine.

"Then you felt it too?" David asked.

"Too?" Kristine asked. "What do you mean?"

"In the middle of a report I was reading before the class," said David, "I abruptly swooned when I thought I saw a vision of somebody helping Rachel in some way. Rachel was hurt and bleeding, but the woman in the vision healed her somehow. It felt almost as if I had received a vision from Heaven itself."

"You did?" exclaimed Kristine, "I had a vision much different. I envisioned Rachel being thrown around her lab by something invisible. She was all bloody there, too, and when it ended, she fell on the ground and died! I screamed for a second, and my professor asked me if I needed to take a time-out from class. I assured him that I was fine, and I kept my self-control for the rest of class time."

"When I zoned out," said David, "my professor scolded me for spacing out while speaking a report I should've been able to recite even in my sleep."

"Yeah, people can be so picky these days," said Kristine. "But what do you think those visions meant? Did something bad happen to Rachel?"

"And could it be connected to those jewels we gave her?" David agreed.

"I say that we pay her a visit before we go home," Kristine suggested, "After all, we _did_ promise her that we would."

"I agree," said David, "Let's roll!"

* * *

When they arrived at the building, they went straight for the front door and ran up the steps to look for Rachel. When they reached the lab, the sight shocked them, to say the least.

"Oh my God," Kristine whispered, "What happened in here?"

"Rachel?" David called out. She didn't come out to meet them. "Rachel?" Kristine tried. Still, no Rachel.

"I'll look around the inside," said David, "You check the outside, Krissy."

Kristine ran out to do so. David looked around every nook and cranny. The piled up food and water puzzled him, and he didn't remember Rachel having a bed in her lab. That was odd. Soon, he also noticed that both of the gems were nowhere to be found.

"Where's the sapphire?" he muttered to himself. "Where's the fire opal? Oh, I hope Kristine has better luck than I am."

Suddenly he heard a screech from outside. He looked up, and for the first time he noticed the shattered window in the back of the lab. He ran out of the building and to the back.

Kristine looked absolutely horrified, and when David saw why, he too was aghast with grief. There was Rachel lying on the ground, unmoving, bleeding everywhere, her clothes torn in many places, and a broken neck and spine. It looked like two shards of glass had gouged out her eyes. She was quite clearly dead.

One would normally expect the woman or the girl to burst into tears at a sight like this. But it was in fact David who cried almost uncontrollably at the gruesome sight on the ground. He had always loved Rachel like an unrequited love interest, and would do many things to insure her safety, and here she was, dead in a pool of blood on the ground, right outside her own lab.

Kristine joined him in his weeping for a minute, but more quietly. "I can't believe she could end up like this," she said. "And just this morning she seemed to be doing so well!"

David dried his eyes as best he could, which was a mighty feat, and he said, "I'm gonna nail him, Krissy. I may not be a cop or a vigilante, but I'm gonna find out who did this, and make sure he pays dearly!"

"Now, David," said Kristine, "Don't get any ideas."

"But I already have one!" he said sharply. "Rachel is lying dead on the ground right before our eyes, mangled as though she had been put through some kind of slicing machine. And you want me to not get any ideas? To hell with that!"

"At least hold on to your sanity, for God's sake Peter!" Kristine snapped, "Even if this idea made sense, you won't do anybody any good by losing your self-control! I mean, this is so unlike you!"

"I'm telling you, Krissy," David argued angrily, "I _am_ gonna get whoever did this and teach him a lesson. And you're going to help me."

"What?!" she exclaimed, "No, you're not getting me involved in your private vendetta, especially not against my will!"

"Blast it, Krissy," said David, "_Your_ head is the one that's stuck, not mine! You're haunted by these strange visions just as much as I am! You seemingly awoke something in that opal just like I did with that sapphire! And Rachel was your friend as much as she was mine! She even offered to have you as a girlfriend before you rebuffed her as politely as you could! Face it, Krissy, you're in this just as deeply as I am. And if dad ever finds out what we've been up to, he'll never forgive us for it. We have to do this together."

Kristine groaned in defeat. "Fine, then," she retorted, "I'll help. But I'll do it for Rachel, and to stop a maniac, and not because I want to be complicit in your private vendetta, you got that, _brother?_"

David looked at her mildly. "Yes, _sister._ That was all I wanted right now."

Back inside the lab, they couldn't find any evidence of foul play besides the horrific mess the lab was in. David told Kristine that the sapphire and the opal were both gone. "Someone must have taken them with him, or her," he speculated. "Something tells me that those stones might have played a part in Rachel's death."

"What do you think we should do about it?" Kristine asked him.

"Dad promised us that he would have enough time for a big dinner tonight with us," said David. "Now we can't reveal just yet that we nosed around in those gold boxes he dug up. I suggest we casually ask him some questions about Arabic and Islamic folklore, since the markings on the boxes resemble those cultures. Maybe he knows something about it, or maybe he can direct us to someone who has better knowledge of it than he does."

"We might as well, I guess," said Kristine. "It sounds as good a plan as any. Can you help me think of some _casual_ questions I can ask dad on our way home, David?"

"I'm sure I can, Krissy," said David.

* * *

That evening, at the dinner table, as David and Kristine did their best not to remember Rachel's messy corpse, Howard brought out a duck and some rolls and vegetables to eat. His assistant, Gerald, had been invited, as well, and sat opposite his boss at the table while David and Kristine sat across from each other. They didn't feel entirely comfortable with one of their dad's helpers at the dinner table with them, but they decided to take a chance and talk to Howard with Gerald's presence.

"How does the duck taste, kids?" Howard asked his children.

"Oh, it's good," said David as cheerfully as he could. "You really know how to cook, dad."

"Yeah, dad," said Kristine, "though I think someday I should show you some more of the ins and outs of _real _cooking. This is good, but I think there's room for improvement."

"Well, that's why I ask for criticism as well as praise," said Howard, "And I'm glad I taught you both how to criticize as well as how to praise."

"Thanks, dad," said Kristine, "Uh, listen dad," he said, choosing her words carefully, "I'm curious. I'm going to be doing some courses in one of my classes about Persian and Arabic mythology, and I was wondering if you could tell me anything about…what sort of supernatural stuff they believed in, or what kind of magic they practiced. The information could get me a good grade on my next assignment."

"Really?" said Howard pleasantly, "Well, I know that they were both Zoroastrian and Islamic, and those cultures have long believed in strange spirits existing alongside mankind, spirits besides God's angels and the Devil's demons, that is. But I'm afraid I don't know a great deal beyond that; I'm afraid you'll have to find someone else to ask, I'm sorry."

"Oh," said Kristine. David gestured to her sidelong. "Well, uh, do you know of anyone who could give us better answers about this question?"

"Oh, so David's interested too," said Howard curiously, "Well, that's all right. I'm glad my boy and my girl appreciate education."

"Excuse me, Howard," said Gerald suddenly, "but what about Marcus Jones, the folklore professor at the university? He knows a lot about Persian and Islamic history and folklore. Maybe he could help David and Krissy out."

"Oh yeah," said Howard, "Why didn't I think of that myself? Thanks for the suggestion, Gerald."

"Who's Marcus Jones?" inquired David.

"_Dr._ Marcus Jones," said Howard reverently, "He specializes in Middle Eastern material, everything from folklore to geography and spirituality. Some of the other professors consider him a legend, partly because he's seventy years old."

"Spirituality," David whispered to himself. He winked at Kristine. "That sounds terrific, dad. Is it possible for us to meet Dr. Jones?"

"I can arrange an appointment with him," said Howard, "He'll probably be able to see you either tomorrow or the day after."

David and Kristine weren't too thrilled about hearing that they might have to wait until the day after, but they thanked their father for the offer anyway, and said that any time would be good for them.

"Fantastic," said Howard, "Now let's finish this meal with some lighter talk than this, okay?"

* * *

In another part of town, it was getting darker. An old bum in a hat and trench coat was walking up to a pharmacy store, grumbling to himself about how he had "three fucking prescriptions" to pick up from the pharmacist tonight. Actually, they weren't really "prescriptions;" bums can rarely afford to have them, let alone shelter them from thieves, because they are homeless, after all. He really wanted to get a bottle of Aleve, a bottle of cough medicine, and a packet of Lifesavers to freshen his bad breath a little.

He walked into the store and started to trod toward the shelves to get his purchases, but the pharmacist, an old man who didn't care for bums on his property, caught him slipping behind the shelves and yelled at him.

"You!" he shouted. "I thought I told you never to come in here again until you get a home, some money, and some decent clothes!"

"Oh yeah," said the bum angrily, "Well fuck you, pharmy! I need my Aleve to stop this stinking arthritis from shooting pain through my poor old bones, and I need my cough medicine to stop this-(cough, cough)-damn cough, and my mouth tastes so terrible those Lifesavers will be a miracle lifesaver if I can only get my hands on some!"

"That's too bad," said the pharmacist, "You're always disturbing the peace in my business, and if you don't stop and go to another pharmacist soon, I'm going to call the police and have you forcibly removed!"

The bum snarled like an animal. "Okay, fine, asshole," he said, "But you just remember that I'm not going to leave you alone anytime soon. If you threaten to throw me out of this joint again, I swear I'll kill ya myself!"

Some of the other customers were disturbed by this remark. He looked at them and said, "Yeah, I mean it! I'm gonna kill him!"

"Get out, now!" shouted the pharmacist.

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill ya!" the bum yelled one more time before walking out into the streets again. He trudged off, grumbling again about how "tough the goddamn world was," and that he'd fight it all by his lonesome if he had to.

Then, as he stepped into an alley next to the pharmacy to light a cigarette, he stopped in surprise to see a beautiful young woman with black, shoulder-length hair and dressed in dark blue-and-white clothes standing a few feet away from him. He blanched, obviously not prepared for something so beautiful to be standing in a trashy alley in the middle of the city, especially considering that she was looking right at him.

"I pity you, old man," she said in a voice that almost tinkled with delight, "People like you always have it so hard in the world. Of course, that pharmacist has troubles of his own, and I'm sorry you can't see them."

The bum flushed in embarrassment to be addressed this way by a woman who was beautiful without being the slightest bit slutty at the same time. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded to know.

"My name is Victoria," she said, "and I already know that yours is Mark. A pity that such an honorable name goes to someone as foul as you are."

"Huh?" Mark exclaimed, "How did you know that? Are you some kind of psychic charlatan or something?"

"I assure you, I am not a charlatan," she said firmly, "I have the ability to grant wishes to people who desire things. Surely there is something that you seek for? A home? A new savings account? Better clothes? Toothpaste and a toothbrush?"

Mark looked at Victoria as if she had two heads. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, "People can't do shit like that! That's only in kiddie's fairy tales like Aladdin and the Magic Lamp!"

"Ah, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp," Victoria said wistfully, "I have heard of that one. 'Tis supposed to be one of the greatest Arabian fairy tales ever written from what I have heard. But don't act so obstinate now! There must be something you want that I can grant you to get you out of your rut. Speak it, and you will get it."

Mark looked back toward the pharmacy. He frowned at it and said, "Well, there is one thing that would make me feel better. That pharmacist has always had it in for me, and I feel the exact same way about him. What do you say if I use a wish to make him die?"

Victoria's eyes widened. Her mouth twitched in disgust. "Now why would you wish for such a _terrible_ thing, old man?" she said, "What has he ever done to you, besides push you out of his business? And even if he was more guilty, vengeance is not the path of right. Besides, I am aware that you pack a concealed gun in your coat pocket. Did you ever consider using such a ghastly item to kill him before?"

"What!? You know about that too?" Mark said, suddenly jittery. "How much do you know about me, anyway?"

"Too much for comfort, I must say," admitted Victoria. "But surely I can grant you a wish that will save you from the gutter you wallow in and give you a new and better life to start from scratch?"

"I'm beyond caring about all that moral garbage!" roared Mark, then more quietly, "I just want to see that damn pharmacist suffer! I want him to die. I want to see him die. If you really are some kind of genie, make it happen!"

A sadness came to Victoria's face. "As you wish."

A moment passed. "Okay," said Mark, "So, how do I know that he's actually dead, anyway?"

"You want proof that I am not making this up?" said Victoria mildly. "Go back inside that pharmacy and see for yourself. Then you may judge my powers however you want to."

"All right, I think I will," said Mark, shuffling back to the front doors of the pharmacy.

Inside, Mark saw the pharmacist handing out a prescription to a customer. Said customer walked out of the store. The pharmacist watched her go, and then his eyes set on Mark again.

"What in hell are _you_ doing back in here so soon?" he demanded.

Mark squinted at him in disbelief. "You're not dead," he said.

"Of course I'm not dead," the pharmacist said, his impatience mounting, "Why does it concern you? Have you returned to kill me?"

Mark grumbled once more. "The dumb broad was a charlatan after all! This asshole is still alive!"

What happened next went so quickly that it happened before Mark was aware of what he was doing. Suddenly, as if his hands, arms and body were controlled by invisible puppet strings, his right hand shot into his pocket and he drew his semi-automatic handgun that he normally used in self-defense. Then in one blink of an eye, he aimed and fired, shooting the old pharmacist in the head twice.

The other people in the store screamed. Most of them put their hands up as if in surrender. One man panicked and lay flat on the floor. Unknown to everyone, one woman dived behind some shelves and frantically whispered an emergency 911 call through her cell phone, begging the nearest police officers to come to the pharmacy at once.

Mark had no idea what had happened initially. He felt as if he had done some kind of action while in a trance, but he wasn't sure what it was. Then, he saw the horrified customers staring at him fearfully. Next, his gaze turned to the pharmacist just in time to see him sink to the floor, two neat bullet wounds in his skull. Finally, Mark became aware that he was holding his pistol in the pharmacist's direction, and the smoke coming out of the muzzle, meaning that it had just been discharged.

Gaping in alarm, he tried to tell the people, "I didn't do it! I didn't kill him, honest!"

"Mister," one customer said as bravely as he could, "You _did_ kill him. We all saw it. You can't fool us!"

"Quiet," said a woman, "He might kill all of us too!"

But Mark was in too much shock to even consider threatening the other people. He ran to the pharmacist's body to make sure he was dead. The old man indeed was.

At that moment, he remembered the wish he had insisted the strange woman grant for him if she was for real. _She must have done this to me. I made a wish, and she really did make it come true!_

His body shook with horror as the enormity of his wish hit him. He didn't know what to do or where to go. But soon he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, at least.

At that moment, the doors burst open and numerous policemen entered the store, their guns trained on the old man holding the smoking gun. "FREEZE!" they yelled. Helplessly, Mark shook his head and dropped the gun. The officers roughly frisked him, taking away his hat, and cuffed him. One officer read him his Miranda rights.

"Officers, no, this is all a mistake," he pleaded, "I didn't mean to kill him! I wasn't even trying to kill him!"

The customers looked at him with expressions that clearly said that they were not fooled. "Officer," the woman with the cell phone said to the sergeant, "Don't believe him. We all saw him do it. Earlier, he was threatening to kill the poor pharmacist, and he sounded like he meant it! Then he came back about five minutes ago and said something about how he wasn't dead yet. Then, he suddenly whipped out his gun and shot the pharmacist twice in the head! He used the gun as if he was some kind of professional marksman!"

Mark's mouth did quite a workout, but no sound came out of it. The police looked at him. He knew that he couldn't logically argue with the woman over what happened. Who would believe him anyway?

"Come on, mister," said the sergeant, "You're going to jail. And stop trying to deny what you did. We have many witnesses who are willing to testify against you."

As he was being led to one of the squad cars, Mark decided he was damned if he gave up on mentioning the woman. "Listen," he said, "Before I shot the man, I encountered a strange woman in the alley. She said something about granting wishes, and she apparently granted my wish to see him die, but I didn't think she was going to use her power to make _me_ do the deed!"

Some of the cops laughed at Mark, obviously amused by his far-fetched story.

The sergeant frowned at him, evidently losing patience with Mark's stories. "No more stories, mister," he said, "I'm getting tired of them."

"No, I mean it!" Mark insisted, "She's probably still there, or she's near the alley. She had black hair and deep, dark eyes, she was dressed in midnight blue-and-white, and she was stunningly beautiful. Go find her, she'll tell you!"

The sergeant looked disgusted, but he finally submitted, ordering two of his men to look for said woman in the alley and the immediate surrounding area. The officers went to do their bidding, and soon leaped into the alleyway with their guns drawn. No one was visible except for another bum who looked like he just wanted to get some sleep. They searched behind boards, trash cans and other things that are usually found in a street alley. Still no dark, beautiful woman. They holstered their guns and made a quick look at the people standing nearby. One man in a dark suit was watching the scene with a cross between what could only be amusement and thoughtfulness, but otherwise, nothing looked out of the ordinary. They returned to their sergeant, and one of them said, "No dark, beautiful woman, no nothing, Sarge."

"What?" said Mark. "That can't be! She was there! She must be hiding in the crowd! Please, just search the onlookers until you find her!"

The sergeant's patience had worn thin. "All right, that's enough, old fool," he said, "Save the rest of it for the courts, or better yet, for a white room in an institution." His partner pushed Mark into the patrol car.

"NO!" Mark shouted, begging for clemency, but the cops meant it when they said they had enough. The door was shut in his face and the sergeant and his partner piled back into the front seats. Mark suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar face out of the window. He looked more carefully, and there was Victoria, looking right at him with a sad but stern look of reproach on her face.

"There she is!" he yelled, "In the crowd! I can show you where she is, sergeant-"

"Shut it, man!" said the officer, "I don't want to hear anything more about it, or else your giving up the right to remain silent will bite you back like a Komodo Dragon in court!"

Utterly defeated, Mark leaned back in his seat and hung his head, silently weeping and cursing Victoria's name, as he went to jail.

* * *

The djinn known as Nathaniel Demerest had been watching most of the affair. He hadn't originally known that his nemesis amongst his own kind was in this very same area he was in. It intrigued him a little that he was not the only djinn presently on Earth, though he would have liked it more if she had been amongst his evil brethren instead of one who held to the path of so-called righteousness. That meant that he had a powerful opponent to best, and he might have to do so before he could grant his Waker three wishes and open the portal to the void. Still, it _was_ exciting to know that he had an extra challenge to conquer besides just collecting souls through single wishes, and the djinn loved a good challenge.

"I am certain," he said quietly to himself, "that the djiniri is looking for her Waker just as much as I am looking for mine, and if I can track down both Wakers, perhaps I can use the djiniri and her Waker as leverage to make my Waker utter her own fatal three wishes. Hm hm hm!"

Unfortunately, for some reason, he could not detect the presence of the djiniri anywhere nearby. She must have left in a hurry, he thought. No matter. He could have used that bum, and perhaps the pharmacist as well, as a couple more souls to power his gem, but there would be others who would desire selfish and tempting things.

Nathaniel snickered quietly and left the scene before anyone besides those two cops noticed him there.

* * *

Victoria, meanwhile, was about two blocks away by this time, and she was determined to make even more distance between herself and that crime scene. It had appalled her to her very core to grant such a monstrous wish for a wretched bum who didn't want salvation, just revenge, but she was a djiniri, and she had no choice but to obey that command. It had also sapped some of her strength to fulfill that wish, for vile wish fulfillments always ate away at the holiness of a good djinn and tainted his or her image as an icon of selfless compassion. But still, she _had_ given him fair warning against asking for such a thing as murder, and he had ignored her, and she had to make the pharmacist's death look like it had happened according to the normal laws of the evolved planet Earth. She was not entirely to blame for this unfortunate incident. In fact, from a certain point of view, she was not to blame at all, she realized.

The djiniri only prayed that modern humanity wasn't incorrigible as a whole, like Rachel and Mark had been. She wanted to make good people happy, and to help people in need, not to grant the sorts of wishes normally reserved for the evil djinn.

Pulling a blue hood over her head, she put her hands in her jacket pockets and blended into the night once again, determined to find her Waker and purify the Earth as was her duty.


	6. A Joyful Wish

_**Chapter 5: A Joyful Wish**_

* * *

In the morning, Howard Daniel managed to get an immediate appointment with Dr. Marcus Jones for his son and daughter. Needless to say, David and Kristine were relieved to find that their meeting with Dr. Jones was going to happen so soon, after all.

Before meeting up with their father to see the good doctor, though, David clandestinely told his sister that he had another vision, one that was more disturbing than the last. A bum had killed an innocent pharmacist with a deadly weapon, and had been arrested, claiming the whole time that some beautiful woman had made him do it because of a wish he made, but no one believed him.

"This is getting more and more interesting," remarked Kristine.

"What about you, Krissy," asked David, "Did you see or hear anything strange last night or this morning?"

"Not so far, David," replied Kristine, "But I'll be sure to let you know if and when I do."

"From the looks of what's been happening," said David, "the 'when' seems a lot more likely than the 'if.'"

"That's what I'm afraid of," said Kristine.

* * *

At the school, Howard proudly introduced them to Dr. Marcus Jones, a venerable old man with thinning gray hair, a stern but polite face, and a short, gray beard. "It's a pleasure to meet you, David and Kristine," Dr. Jones said, shaking their hands.

"Oh, that's all right, Dr. Jones," said Kristine, "We're just here to learn what we can from you."

"Please," the professor said, "I'm not your official teacher; there's no need to go by formalities here. Call me Marcus."

"Okay, Marcus," said David. Kristine nodded.

"I'll leave you three to get acquainted now," said Howard. He said his goodbyes to his children, and was off to teach his own classes again.

"So, then," said Marcus, "What was it you wanted to learn about then?"

"Basically," said David, "we want to learn about the supernatural beings and powers that the ancient Arabs believed, particularly in old Persia, and uh, if they truly had powers, or were just charlatans, like most modern people believe they were."

"Well, that's right up my alley," said Marcus, "Listen, I have about twenty minutes before my first class; why don't we take a short walk on the campus grounds while we talk about this?"

"Suits us fine, Marcus," said Kristine. David agreed.

While walking around on the grass, enjoying the cool morning temperature, Marcus started to explain about how the Persians and Islamic Arabs had long believed that other supernatural beings exist alongside man besides the angels and the demons.

"Yes, we sort of know that already," said Kristine uncertainly, "Dad mentioned it. What we mean is, what were, or are, these creatures supposed to be?"

"Ah," said Marcus, "Now we're getting someplace. It's said that while man was made from the dust and clay of the earth, and the angels were fashioned out of light, including the future Devil and his demons, hot fire somehow created a race of creatures called the djinn. They fit into three moral classifications: good, evil, and benevolently neutral. Some of the good ones were so good that they were holy, while most of the evil ones were pure evil, and the neutral ones simply wanted to live the lives of their own choice, and not take part in the cosmic conflict between good and evil. They gained the power to grant wishes to humans, in exchange for a price, which was usually their souls if the djinn were evil, and through these wishes the djinn would gain strength. But if a djinn, or a djiniri, a female djinn, were awoken in this world, his or her primary task would be to offer their Waker three wishes at no expense to that particular wisher. Upon the granting of the third wish, either one of two things could happen: if the djinn was good, he would open a portal to the void between the worlds where they are condemned to dwell, and all the good and pure djinn would be released to purify the Earth, by cleansing it of all evil people and impurities and hallowing those who hold to the right-hand path; if the djinn was evil, on the other hand, he would open a similar portal, and all the vile, abominable djinn would come forth and ravage mankind all over the Earth, turning it into their own hellish kingdom to rule forever, or until God would decide to put a stop to it."

David and Kristine listened to all this with wonder and awe. "And what if a neutral djinn granted his Waker three wishes?" asked David.

Marcus shrugged. "No one knows for sure," he said, "Probably nothing. Like I said, neutral djinn don't take part in the war between the principalities. They just want to go their own way and grant as many generous wishes as possible."

"Wait a minute," said Kristine thoughtfully, "The word 'djinn' rings a bell. By saying 'djinn,' do you mean a genie, Marcus?"

Marcus looked a little surprised. "Technically, yes, the djinn were genies, but don't pay any attention to what American pop culture has taught you about the djinn. Djinn aren't comical like Barbara Eden, and they're not colorful and cute like Robin Williams' genie from _'Aladdin,'_ either. They were something else entirely. To the ancient Persians, the neutral djinn were relatively benign, though some of them resented being trapped forever until they could grant some selfish person three wishes, but the evil djinn, and to some extent even the holy ones, were the face of fear itself. The evil djinn didn't care one bit about the suffering of others; in fact, they welcomed it and thrived off of it; and the good djinn were glad to help people in need, but they wouldn't tolerate any sort of heathen remarks or blasphemies. When a hallowed djinn is angry, one should be deathly afraid; only God Himself is more terrifying than a djinn."

David and Kristine absorbed all this knowledge like sponges absorbing water. They had a feeling that if the beings they saw in their visions truly were real, the world was in for a lot of trouble. A pang of guilt went through each of them, but they managed to hide it from Marcus well enough.

"Thank you, sir-I mean, Marcus," said David, "I think that the information you've given us will be a good start on our assignments."

"You are entirely welcome," said Marcus, "Now, if you'll please excuse me, it's getting close to time for class to begin, and I am certain you must get to yours, as well."

David and Kristine looked at their watches. "Yeah, you're right, professor," said Kristine, "We'd better get moving. Thanks for your time."

"Any time," said Marcus with a smile.

On their way back to the building, David and Kristine spoke in hushed whispers. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Kristine.

"Yes," said David, "I think we're in deep, deep trouble, and possibly the whole world as well."

Kristine shuddered as they split up to go to their respective classes.

* * *

Some hours later, as it was getting to be rush hour time, a certain djiniri was taking a walk down one of the many city streets. Victoria wasn't sure who to grant wishes for out of all these people, because who knew which ones were generous and which ones were corrupt? She balked at the very thought of granting another destructive wish. Her stamina held up much better than that of a human, but her incident with the old bum Mark had depleted her power somewhat, and she was desperate to grant a kind wish to someone with a good, uncorrupted heart.

Suddenly, when she came near the corner of one block, she spotted something colorful nearby, and she thought she heard the sounds of little children laughing and eagerly begging their "mommies and daddies" to let them have a toy or three that they were so eager to get. She turned around and saw a store, larger than the pharmacy had been, with the multi-colored sign, _"Toys 'R Us."_

A toy store? She never knew that there were whole stores dedicated to toys alone before. And those little children looked like joyful little people. Maybe she could find someone to help in there. She wasn't sure if everyone who went in could afford the things their kids loved most, and even in ancient days, more often than not, children could be made happy by loving a toy. So she stepped inside.

In the store, she was astounded by all the things on display for children and teenagers to enjoy. Her powers of perception helped her figure out what most of the items were. There was a long aisle dedicated to bicycles for people who couldn't or wouldn't drive cars. On one wall were dozens of board games, both classic and contemporary, like _Chutes and Ladders_, _Candy Land_, and _Risk._ In another aisle, there were many things that were part of a franchise called "Star Wars." The toys ranged from action figures, to plush dolls, to mock weapons called blasters and lightsabers. And in every other aisle, there was something else that looked like it could liven up any child's day. Of course, she didn't intend to buy anything for herself; she was an immortal without a family, and she had no personal use for them herself.

At that moment, Victoria heard a little girl of about eight years old begging her mommy to get her a video movie on DVD called _"Toy Story 3,"_ as well as two toys that were apparently from this Toy Story's franchise. She heard the girl say that they were a plastic Tyrannosaur named Rex and a plastic Triceratops named Trixie.

"I'm sorry, Abby," the mother said to her daughter, "I can't afford all of them right now. I can get you the DVD of the movie now, but not Rex or Trixie."

"Oh," said the girl named Abby dejectedly, "All right. But can't you get them as soon as possible? I wanna have those toys to add to my collection!"

"When I can afford them, I'll get them for you, honey," the mother assured her, "But I can't right now, I'm sorry. At least the movie will be entertaining, so look forward to that."

Victoria couldn't resist. She casually walked over to the mother and her child. "Hello," she said with the kindness of a saint, "Is there a problem here? Maybe I can help you with it."

The mother was surprised to see this charming young woman with midnight-black hair and twinkling eyes walking up to her and asking her such a question. "Uh, do I know you?" she asked awkwardly, "Who are you?"

"Mommy," said Abby, "you always told me not to talk to strangers."

"Yes," said the mother, "but I'm a grown-up, and I can talk to them if I have to. What do you want?" she asked, turning back to the djiniri, "What's your name?" The mother started at asking the stranger that question; it wasn't the sort of question you normally asked strangers, especially if you were a grown-up.

"East," said Victoria, "Victoria East. Call me Victoria."

"Uh, well, hello," said the mother, a little embarrassed. Why did she feel as young as her little daughter with this woman around? "Listen," she said with a politeness she didn't normally show to strangers who just walk up to you and say hello, "Can I do something for you? My daughter and I were just going to buy a DVD and then head home."

Victoria smiled nicely. "I think the question should be, 'What can I do for you?'"

The mother shifted from foot to foot. She didn't know what to make of this charming woman. She privately hoped she wasn't trying to make a move on her or draw a hidden knife.

"Mommy," said Abby, "This stranger seems like a very nice lady to me. Why don't you give her a chance to show she means well, please?"

"Well," said the mother uncertainly, "What do you mean you can do something for us? Strangers normally don't mean well when they say something like that to a common citizen."

"I can make wishes come true," said Victoria, "And I believe your little Abby said she also wanted a couple of dinosaur toys called Rex and Trixie in addition to that video."

"I did," said Abby eagerly, "Can you really grant wishes? I've wished upon a star before, because I love Disney and Pixar so much!"

"Indeed, I can," said Victoria with a smile, "I aim to make people happy, not sad. Wish for those toys, and I'll find a way to make each of them affordable to you."

"Uh, ma'am," said the mother, "I don't know where you're coming from, saying all this about granting wishes, but in case you're trying to trick us with something we're unprepared for, I'd rather make the wish myself, so nothing bad happens to my little girl."

Victoria smiled more brightly than before. Abby and her mother thought that her black hair shone and her face became brighter. "That is one of the most selfless things a parent can do for her child," she said, "I congratulate you for it! Now, are you sure you want to make this wish?"

"Yes," said the mother, "I wish that I could buy those Rex and Trixie toys for my daughter, Abby."

A second or two later, one of the employees came into the area where they were and announced that there was going to be a temporary discount on all the Toy Story toys, including Rex and Trixie, and the discount was an excellent bargain. The mother checked the prices, and then her cash.

"My goodness," she said in wonder, "Did you really make that happen?"

The djiniri winked. "Wish granted," she said quietly.

The mother and her daughter were filled with awe. "Please excuse us for a few minutes," she gushed, "We've got to pay for these toys!" Mother and daughter retrieved a Rex toy and a Trixie toy and paid for everything up front from a cashier who was looking rather bored or down about his job. While they were gone, a seven-year old boy and his mother came up to Victoria, said that they had overheard the conversation, and they wanted to make a wish, too.

"All right," said she, "Do you want to make the wish, young man, or will your mother do it?"

"To be safe, for my boy, that is, I want to say it," said the mother.

"Very well," said Victoria, "What do you wish for?"

"I wish Timmy here could get his own mini-bicycle. The bikes in this store are sold at a rip-off price," she said.

"Done," said Victoria, and the same employee as before returned and set a temporary discount on the bikes, too.

Timmy's eyes widened. "Why thanks, ma'am!" he exclaimed. "I'm gonna love this like my favorite thing!"

"This is astounding," said his mother, "Thank you so much, Mrs.-?"

"Ms. Victoria East," said the djiniri. "Call me Victoria."

"Okay," the mother replied, "Thank you again. Now we've got to get someone to get the bike down from the ceiling for us."

"Oh, allow me," offered Victoria, and with amazing strength and grace, she somehow unchained said bike and brought it down for Timmy. "Done. In some situations, one such as myself can offer another wish to one who makes a first wish."

"Wow!" said Timmy, "Did you see that, mom?"

"I surely did," the mother said, wide-eyed. "You are _amazing!"_

Victoria smiled modestly. "Thank you, but I don't desire fame and praise. This is simply what I do for a living."

"You help people with problems by granting them wishes?" asked Timmy.

"That's one thing I do, yes," Victoria confirmed.

Timmy went to the same checker counter the previous mother and Abby had gone to and paid for their purchase. The cashier was once again nonchalant. But they didn't care. They were happy, and that's what mattered.

Victoria followed them outside, passing through the counter too. She said a polite goodbye to the cashier and walked out. The cashier mumbled under his breath, "This is not my day."

Outside, she met up with the mothers and their children again, who seemed to be waiting for her. Good, because she had a few final words to say to them. "What are your names, ladies?"

"I'm Ruth," said Abby's mother. "And I'm Connie," said Timmy's mother.

"It's good to know you all," Victoria said. "Now please listen carefully. I hope you enjoy what you wished for, but you must not, at all costs, tell anyone else that a genie helped you get those items, not even other family members or close friends. I am on a private mission here, and if too many people find out that a genie is loose in their town, it could compromise my mission drastically. It could also compromise your wishes in some way, so all the more reason not to talk about it."

Timmy and Abby looked a little disappointed that they couldn't tell their friends about this, but they, with their mothers, promised not to tell anyone.

"Thank you very much," said the djiniri. "That was the price that came with making these wishes, to keep my presence a closely guarded secret from the general public. And remember, if you don't keep your promise, it could have negative repercussions on you or your loved ones."

"Agreed," said Ruth and Connie.

"Now, just one more thing before I go," Victoria said, "I am looking for a young man with white skin, short, brown hair, green eyes, spectacles, and a lean mouth. His name is David. He awoke me from my slumber, and now I must find him in order to fulfill my mission."

"No, I haven't, sorry," said Connie after a moment's thought.

"There are a lot of people like that throughout the country," said Ruth, "and I don't know anyone by that name who looks like that personally. But I think I've seen at least one person like that somewhere. I saw all those features on him except his eye color, because I couldn't get close enough to his face. I saw him walking into the Kornell University on the other end of town. Maybe he studies something there."

"Ah, yes," said Victoria, "That's good enough for me. It shouldn't take too long to track him down now. Thank you. Good day to you."

"Thanks again for the wishes," said Ruth and Connie.

"Thanks for the toys," said Timmy and Abby, grinning.

* * *

As she left, the djiniri felt a little better about herself, more vindicated, one might say. She had lost some strength with the bum's wish, but having granted not one, but two generous and kind wishes for innocent children and their pure-hearted mothers, she could feel her sapphire power up to a higher level with the willpower of those wishes. Her strength returned along with a little extra. This was more like it, she thought. This was one of the sorts of wishes she preferred to grant people, and she hoped to gain more strength on her way to meet her Waker.

At that moment, she saw a strange-looking man in an expensive suit staring at her from fifty feet away. There was something wrong about him, like he belonged here even less than she did. Quickly, to be safe, she threw up a strong mental wall to hide her power, put her hood back on, and rushed off to continue her search. Her instincts told her that man was not a man at all.

In fact, she could see in his seductive eyes and his smug smirk that he was one of her own kind, only on the other side.

_An evil djinn is on the Earth at the same time and place I am!_

This made her mission all the more urgent. She needed to find her Waker and fulfill the prophecy of the good djinn through his three wishes fast, before the evil djinn found his Waker and granted him/her three wishes, and fulfill the unholy counter-prophecy!

* * *

The djinn was curious as to why that attractive woman had panicked upon seeing him and ran away quickly. He had tried to perceive if she was the djiniri the lab scientist had mentioned to him, but apparently, she had a strong resistance to having her mind probed, and she must have been one of the minority of people who knew that someone as charming and seductive-looking as him couldn't be up to any good. People in this modern age certainly did not like to get involved with strangers. But this didn't bother the djinn too much. He had such a way with words that he could worm his way into almost anyone's secret desires.

A few seconds after she was out of sight, he looked at the toy store she and those mothers and daughters had come out of. To his disappointment, it was too late for him to seduce those little brats into making easy wishes through him and put their innocent little souls in the center of his torture chamber. He thought it would've been amusing making a couple of children suffer. This was because both families had now driven away in their respective cars and were long gone. But as he looked back at the store, he could sense there was at least one person in there who was troubled and had a hidden desire.

_Good,_ he thought with glee. _Perhaps I will find some prey today after all._

And with that, the djinn went to play with some toys, _his_ kind of toys.

* * *

**A/N:** I deliberately spelled Cornell with a 'K,' because this is a fictional American town I'm writing about, and I'm not sure if I'm going to give it a name or not. If you thought this chapter was too tame, the next one will show the evil djinn at work with his twisted wishes once again, so be patient.


	7. A Not-So-Joyful Wish

_**Chapter 6: A Not-So-Joyful Wish**_

* * *

On their way home from the university, David told Kristine about still another vision he had. "I saw a couple of little children, one a boy and the other a girl, and their mothers, receive through an inexplicable discount some toys they wanted to get from a _Toys 'R Us_ store. The joy in the scene was ecstatic."

Kristine shook her head. "You must be having the time of your life getting all thee wonderful sights in your mind, David."

"No, not really," said David, "In fact, the more it happens, the more I get the feeling that I was right when I said that we're all in deep trouble. I'm almost convinced that these djinn are for real, after all, and if there's a good one sending me visions of the joy of others, then surely there's an evil one out and about too, sending you visions of pain and fear."

"As crazy as that sounds," said Kristine, "I'm beginning to agree with you."

* * *

Inside the Toys 'R Us store, the djinn named Nathaniel was a little surprised to find that the store was largely empty of customers. He expected the store to be hopping with them after seeing those funny little fools walking out with their mothers and their new toys. As he probed the store for that troubled person, however, he soon found him. A cashier at one end of the store, the one for the express line, looked dejected, like there was something wrong with him. Grinning with anticipation, the djinn strode towards him.

"Good day, my good man," he said smoothly.

The cashier looked up and frowned at him.

"Who the hell are you?" he wanted to know, "Look, if you have nothing you want to buy, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Some lady who looked like she did a big favor for a couple of kids already came in here and walked out while buying nothing, and I'm not in the mood to chat with more people who waste my time."

The djinn took special interest at this. _So,_ he thought quietly_, perhaps that woman with the strong will _was_ a djiniri after all! Damn! I was so close! I'll have to teach her a lesson next time I catch up to her_. "Oh, but to me, it looks like your time was already being wasted before she even came here," he said aloud to the cashier, "Tell me, what exactly is your problem today?"

The cashier sighed. "My job is becoming a dead end, that's what," he moaned. "Business had been slow the last several days, with fewer people coming here to spend their hard-earned cash. And most of those that do come in use their credit cards to buy stuff at the other checker counters. And even when someone does come to my counter to buy a few things, it's always cheap and discounted junk that they purchase. Why, those cheerful people who were in here just a few minutes ago got a free discount for some toys they so badly wanted, and now, I have even less money to spend on my own living!"

"I see," said the djinn, "So, you are a man who wants to make a good, _rich_ living of his own then."

"Basically, yeah," said the cashier.

"You know what?" the djinn said, "I can make that desire come true. All you have to do is wish for it."

"Oh, great," said the cashier, rolling his eyes in disgust, "Another fucking guy who wants to 'help' people in need free of charge!"

"Not quite free," said the djinn, "If you make this wish, I require your soul in return."

"My soul?" the cashier exclaimed.

"Yes," said the djinn, "But don't you think it's worth it, if you get some more attention from the kiddies and get some more money for yourself? I am just as much a friend to the needy as that other woman, and I can give you what you want, if you wish for it. Now make your choice. Do you want to have the kiddies in this neighborhood to come in here, beg for as many expensive toys as possible and shower you with money?"

The cashier thought about it for a moment. Then, he said the words he would regret for a long time, possibly the rest of his existence.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do."

The djinn gave another evil grin. "As you wish."

Suddenly, the doors to the store burst open. The cashier stared in surprise as dozens of kids, all of them teenagers, ran into the store and started to grab the most expensive toys, games, and videos of all kinds. The other employees backed away in surprise and alarm. Then, to everyone's further surprise, all the kids ganged up on the express aisle where the cashier who made the fatal wish was working. They began to throw money at him and tossed their toys all over the counter.

"Hey, will you kids calm down?" he demanded nervously, "One at a time. One at a time! And there are other aisles too, you know!"

But the kids ignored him. They continued to demand their toys to be checked out so they could play with them. The cashier was starting to feel like he had bit off more than he could chew.

"Stop it now, you little brats!" he yelled, "STOP IT, I SAY!"

Then, without warning, a few of the biggest kids actually _leaped_ over the checker counter and tackled the cashier! He fell to the floor and struggled in vain to push them off of him.

"What do you little bastards think you're doing!?" he screamed.

Then the kids started to hit and kick him. It hurt like crazy, and every attempt to stop or dodge a punch or a kick hopelessly failed. He didn't notice that a cashier on the other end of the store was frantically pushing the security button under her checker counter, but it wouldn't matter anyway. Just as he thought he could take no more, one boy who had the air of a big bully produced a set of brass knuckles, put them on his right hand and proceeded to pound the cashier in the chest, hard. He received many bruises, and some of his rib bones started to crack. He writhed and cried out in anguish, until at last, the boy with the brass knuckles aimed a fast punch at his head, cracking his skull and making him bleed. The cashier stopped struggling and flopped on the floor, dead.

Suddenly the kids seemed to break out of their trance. They looked at what they had just done and stammered with fear and guilt. All the employees had retreated to the back of the store, taking cover from the formerly insane teenagers. The boy with the brass knuckles stared at the blood on them and said, "Oh no, what have I done? This can't be happening!" That got a chorus of agreement from the other kids.

It was at about this moment that the security and the police burst into the store. Upon seeing the kids crowded around the cashier's corpse, some of them with blood on their hands and shoes, the same sergeant from the previous incident with the killer bum ordered his men to subdue and arrest them all. Soon, all the kids were in handcuffs and being led to a few paddy wagons. The kid with the brass knuckles who had delivered the fatal blow protested all the way, but the cops treated him the most roughly of all, beating him in the belly with their nightsticks before loading him into a squad car.

The sergeant was not pleased to see that none of the kids' parents were anywhere nearby, but he was even less pleased to see another crime scene where the killers claimed that something was controlling them besides their own willpower. While the other officers tried to clear up the situation with the other employees and customers, looking for witnesses, the sergeant ordered one of his other officers to put out an APB for a strange woman matching the description of the person the bum had described to them, who claimed she could grant wishes. It sounded silly, of course, but he was certain that whoever she was, she was the one causing trouble in the city, and he intended to put a stop to this.

He recalled an earlier crime as well, when a couple of distressed siblings had reported that they found their best friend dead and in a mangled mess on the ground outside her gemology lab. He doubted if either of those young people bore any responsibility for these crimes, but he would still have to keep an eye on them. They told him their names were David and Kristine Daniel. That would be easy for him to remember. He just had to find out the mystery woman's name now.

Unfortunately, he didn't know that the true party responsible for the cashier and Rachel's deaths was standing not too far away in a business suit, a man, not a woman, smiling with delight at the scene of carnage before him.

* * *

The djinn, of course, was glad to have another soul for his wretched gem. He could feel his power grow stronger as the wishes people asked him for granted him greater dominion over the world he so wanted to rule with his brethren. Apparently, though, that djiniri was gaining power through her own wishes she granted, and he could sense her sapphire at a slightly stronger power level than his. Evidently, she had gathered more power from wishes so far than he had. He had to catch up, and fast.

Which reminded him, the longer he stood here and stared at this scene, the more time his adversary would have to put distance between them, and the more time would be wasted before he could grant his Waker her three wishes. So with an effort, he turned away from the toy store and continued his quest to open the evil portal and fulfill the prophecy.

* * *

Kristine could feel the death of the cashier like a sledgehammer this time. She gasped as the kids beat him up, and then screamed as he was killed by a hit to the head.

She and David were almost home, but David still was alarmed at his sister's pain. "Krissy?" he shouted as she dropped to the ground. "Krissy! What happened? Are you all right?"

Kristine slowly stood up and shook her head. "I think I'm getting very envious of you, brother," she said bitterly, "You get all the heavenly visions, and I get all the hellish ones."

"You saw another person die?" David pressed her.

"Yes," she said, "A cashier in a store. Possibly the same one you mentioned to me. Some big kids threw things at him, then they leaped over the checker counter and assaulted him, and then, one of them killed him with brass knuckles!"

"This is _really_ getting out of hand," David said.

"I'm beginning to think we should confess to dad what we did," said Kristine. "He's going to suspect it sooner or later. You remember that at our last dinner together he said that they finally opened those gold boxes but found nothing inside them?"

"Yeah," said David, "He was really disappointed, and so was Michael the curator. The boxes are up for display in the museum, but without the treasures inside, they're worth a lot less."

"Not that it'd do a lot of good," admitted Kristine, "They probably would've awoken the djinn too, and the situation could possibly have been a lot worse."

"True," said David, "But as much as I hate to say this, I still don't think it's time yet to tell dad what we did. If he finds out about it, not only will he punish us, but he'll probably fall into a state of depression as well. And think what would happen if he wished to come out of that slump around one of the djinn!"

"I'm beginning to doubt the possibility of a bright future for the world," Kristine said unhappily.

"Please don't talk like that, Krissy!" insisted David, "The world isn't lost yet. We're still here, and so is dad, and you seem to have forgotten that there might be a way to stop these djinn from doing their duty."

Kristine nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry David," she said, her head down. "What's the next step to what we do?"

David thought about it. "I'm not sure yet. I don't know whether we should try to track down those djinn or if we should let them come to us. Let's not think about that tonight unless we absolutely have to. I'm sure the morning will present us with some more answers."

* * *

That night, neither sibling slept entirely fitfully. David had strange dreams about the beautiful woman again, calling to him, insisting that she needed him for important business. Meanwhile, Kristine was haunted by moderately scary nightmares about the ugly monster taunting her and promising to find her. Once, she screamed in her sleep. Her father and brother both woke up and checked on her.

"What's the matter, Krissy?" asked Howard, concerned.

Kristine wiped sweat from her brow. "Oh, it's nothing, dad," she said, "Just a weird dream."

David wasn't pleased to hear this. Howard just said, "Well, if it bothers you again, just get some water or a cold glass of milk and stay up for a little while. You'd be surprised how effective it can be at making the bad dreams go away, you know."

"Okay dad," agreed Kristine.

"That's my big girl," said Howard. To David's surprise, their father didn't go back to bed himself, but went to the kitchen for a cup of tea. He looked at Kristine. She said to her brother, "We both know that no amount of water, milk or awake time will take away my nightmares." It was not a question.

David nodded. "Listen," he whispered, "As long as he isn't going straight back to bed, I'd like to talk to dad a little about the Persian and Muslim stuff we were discussing."

"You're not going to tell him about our problems yet, are you?" she said in fear.

"Of course not," David said, "We already agreed that we wouldn't tell him quite yet. I won't tell him unless he turns the conversation into a loophole from which I can't get out of unless I tell him."

Kristine didn't look too hopeful. "Well, good luck, David," she said.

"Thanks, sis," he replied.

After Kristine was fast asleep again, David went to the kitchen where his father had just poured the tea into a cup. "Oh, hello, David," he said. Funny, he didn't seem to be too surprised that David had come out to visit him. "Do you want anything? Some tea, like I'm having? Or coffee, or milk perhaps?"

David shook his head. "No, no thanks," he said, "I wasn't really thirsty at the moment."

"Oh, okay," Howard said. "Then how about something to eat? Like some coffee cake? Or a donut? Or maybe some cookies?"

David shook his head again. "No, not right now," he said, "I'm not hungry, either."

"Okay, fine," said Howard cheerfully. "Listen, I'm having trouble sleeping, too. Why don't we take a seat out on the deck in the back of the house and have a little talk?"

"That's an interesting coincidence," David said, "because I wanted to talk to you a little, too."

"Oh, do you?" said Howard, "Well, that is good. Let's go, then. No time like the present."

Out on the deck in the back, they sat down in deck chairs David's mother had once bought for the family years ago. "So," said Howard, "What did you want to discuss?"

David took a deep breath. "Well, dad, you remember those Persian and Islamic issues we discussed at the dinner table last night, right?"

"What?" said Howard absent-mindedly. "Oh, yes, of course, I do remember."

"Well, Dr. Marcus Jones told us about how the ancient Arabs believed in all-powerful spirits called the djinn that could grant wishes," started David, "And they fell into classifications of good, evil, and neutral, as well. Tell me, I know archaeology is more your field of expertise than mythology or theology, but do you think there's any possibility that the legends are true?"

"Well, I for one am certain that they are true," said Howard confidently. "Surely, this is an age of science and reason, highly influenced by the Enlightenment, but that doesn't entirely cancel out the possibility that the supernatural and the spiritual can be for real."

"Well, I never knew you were such a believer, dad," said David. "Wait a minute," he suddenly realized something, "At dinner, you said that you don't know a great deal about the supernatural stuff of the Muslims and the Persians. How can you be so confident that they're real, even if they are?"

Howard smiled pleasantly. "I have lived it, in a manner of speaking, of course," he said, "I like to believe that the djinn are like supernatural public servants for the human race. Everybody wishes for something at some point in their life. Why else do you think you make a wish at your birthday party?"

"Well, yes," said David uncertainly, "but-"

"There's no need to worry about it, son," Howard interrupted. "Now, would you like to have some orange juice, or that milk I mentioned earlier? Or maybe you would like an extra cushion for your chair?"

"No really, dad, I don't need anything right now. Hold on…" David said, suddenly becoming suspicious, "…Why do you keep offering me things? You're generous, dad, but you're never _this_ generous."

"I just want to make you feel good," said Howard, putting a hand on David's hand in a strange way. It was as if his father was becoming attracted to him. "Tell me, how are your spectacles feeling today?"

David blinked. "They're called _glasses_, dad."

"Oh, yes, of course, what was I thinking?" Howard chided himself, "I know you need them to make your nice eyes see better, but don't you think they get terribly uncomfortable sometimes? Wouldn't you wish you didn't need them?"

David was getting really on edge now. The mention of the word "wish" especially disturbed him. "Excuse me," he said half-honestly, "I need to check on Krissy." He got up and started to leave the deck. Suddenly, he heard a woman's voice from behind him intone, "Don't go!"

Startled out of his wits, he turned around and saw a stunningly attractive woman standing in his dad's place! She was wearing a dark blue jacket with a hood, which was pulled down, gray tennis shoes, black slacks, and a blue shirt. Her hair was shockingly black, her eyes seemed to be dark brown, penetrating but friendly, and her skin was pale, but not deathly pale.

"Please," she said with a smile, "I did not mean to sound stern."

David wasn't sure how to react. He had a sneaking feeling this was the djiniri whom he woke up, and he was petrified with fear and loathing. Here was one of the supernatural beings that were playing a part in the mayhem around town. But as he looked at her, he could feel no menace or malice in her eyes or heart, and it seemed as if she was interested in him somehow. But the first thing he finally said was, _"Where's my dad? And how did you find me?"_

"Relax, boy," said the djiniri, "He is alive and well in his bedroom. I unintentionally woke him when I came into the house, and he, thinking that I was a dream, wished he could go back to sleep and forget the dream. So I granted his wish. It will be a while yet before he wakes up. As for how I found you, I went to your university and asked a few people for directions, stating that I was a friend in need of some desperate help. Sadly, none of them wanted to wish for anything, but then, not everyone wants to wish for something at the same time."

"Who are you calling _boy_, djiniri?!" David snapped. "I'm twenty-three years old!"

"That is nothing compared to my age, mortal," she said. "But time is of the essence, and we have no time to waste on idle chatter. I assume you know by now who the djinn are and what we are capable of?"

"I have some idea of it, yeah," said David. "But why should I trust you? You and that other interloping djinn have been causing problems all around the city for the past two days! Despite what my visions showed me, I'd be willing to bet you played a part in killing my best friend Rachel!"

"I had nothing to do with Rachel's death," she said flatly, "The other djinn most likely did that. And I do not murder people and steal their souls or their faces like the evil ones do."

"I swear, if you are lying, bitch," David growled quietly, "I'll kill you myself along with that other bastard!"

A bright blue light flashed for a second. David shaded his eyes. When the light faded, he found the djiniri's face right up against his. "How dare you insult a holy djiniri so!" she said with righteous anger. David flinched in a panic. Then she backed a few steps away from him, and he could see that she had changed. Her black hair was longer than before, her eyes were even more penetrating, she wore a translucent blue dress, and her pale skin shone like Heaven's light. David gaped in shock. For a moment, he was unaware that he was staring at the lovely body beneath the dress, but when he was aware of it, he blushed and begged her pardon.

"Yes, David Daniel," she said with a voice that seemed to echo, "Behold, my true countenance."

"My God," he said despite himself, "You're _beautiful."_

"And you are very obstinate for one who awakes a hallowed djiniri," she replied, "Although I cannot deny that _you_ would be seen as attractive to many females of your race."

He blushed again. "Uh, maybe," he stammered.

"Now, let's do this now, and do it right," she said, "I am Victoria East, and I want you to make your three wishes for me."

David looked fearful. Victoria perceived this and said, "I rarely grant wishes that cause harm or disgrace to the wisher, Waker, and even when I do, 'tis more the wisher's fault than my own. Perhaps you have already heard about the wishes I granted for your friend while she was alive but hurt? The wish I granted for a malignant homeless person who preferred vengeance to salvation? The two children and their mothers who wanted some toys from _Toys 'R Us?_ Surely, there is something you want, also."

"Three wishes, for me?" David inquired, "Anything? Does that include good things that don't bite back at you?"

"Anything," Victoria said, "You wish it, I grant it. Think about it. A journey of monotheistic spiritual enlightenment. A trip to Munich, Germany, or perhaps to Paris, France. You name it. But I warn you, wishes, especially selfish ones, usually come with a price. And that price could have major repercussions on you, or someone you care about. But I do not steal and torture souls, like the evil djinn."

David still looked uncertain. "What sort of wishes do you recommend?"

"I encourage wishes of generosity and selflessness the most, but I can grant any other wish, too," Victoria said, "I'll tell you what. Sometimes a djiniri can offer her Waker one 'free' wish, a sample of my power and might, with no negative effects whatsoever."

"All right then," David said, "I'll make that free wish."

"Good," said Victoria.

"I wish to be certain that I can trust you," said David, "I wish for you to show me through your powers what you are, and then bring both of us back here to this house, safe and sound."

"Very well then," said the djiniri, and she held up the sapphire. It glowed freely.

"_You_ took the sapphire," David exclaimed, "Where's the opal?"

"I never saw an opal," admitted the djiniri, "But my opponent most likely has it if there was one."

David looked with interest at the jewel. "What _are_ you doing, exactly?"

The djiniri looked at him as if from a distance. "Granting your free wish, of course."

Then David's world blacked out for a second, and what he encountered next shocked him more than anything else he had seen in his life.


	8. Revelation of the Djiniri

_**Chapter 7: Revelation of the Djiniri**_

* * *

David found himself within a dark blue room of some sort. The walls and ceiling looked like carved crystal, and the floor was smooth to the touch of his shoes. Despite the cool color, the room was strangely warm, not unbearably so, just enough to make one feel like sweating a bit. Before long he spotted what must have been a throne in one part of the room, and the djiniri sat on it reverently.

"Where-where are we?" he asked.

"We are within the sapphire," said Victoria, "You wished to know what I am, did you not?"

"Yes, I did," said David.

"Then I will tell you," she said, "and look around to see the other sights there are to see in this cell as I do."

David started to look around, and he saw images reflected off the crystal walls. He saw injured Rachel getting healed of her injuries, only to be lost to the power of the other djinn. He saw the bum, Mark, whipping out his gun and murdering the pharmacist and being carted off to jail. He could feel the misery and guilt of Mark brought on by his abuse of a righteous djiniri's powers. He saw the nice children with their new toys laughing and playing with Rex and Trixie, riding a bike, and enjoying a family-friendly computer animated movie dedicated to toys. Then things started to go farther back in time, and he saw pictures of Persian warriors slaying presumed enemies, and of a light show filled with spirits that looked rather familiar to him.

The djiniri began to speak. "I am the one who is there to save the troubled and condemn the impure. I am the one with the power to give people wondrous dreams of passion and pride. I am the one who glorifies the good and cleanses the evil, who eradicates all that is ugly and corrupt and purifies all that is loving and happy. I AM HOPE, AND LIGHT."

David was speechless for the first time in a long time in his life. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever borne witness to such purity and power. He stared at Victoria again and his knees began to knock. He felt so dirty next to this hallowed creature.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over. David was once again on the deck in his house with the mysterious djiniri standing nearby. His legs gave out beneath him and he fell on the floor.

Victoria pulled him to his feet. "Are you all right, David?" she asked with a kindness he wasn't expecting.

He looked into her brown eyes as he rose up. They were as deep as wells, yet as twinkly as stars. For the first time since seeing her in the gem, he could sense that this was a creature that not only could be trusted, but meant well for everyone she met, including him and probably also his sister.

Feeling like a rat, David awkwardly bowed to her. "It's an honor to meet you, holy one," he said, not sure of what else to say.

"No, you do not bow to me," she corrected gently, "You are the Waker, and I am the djiniri, or genie, as your culture calls us. Now, I would like you to make your 'official' three wishes before too much more time is lost."

David looked lost. "But what could I wish for? I know you gave me a few examples just a few minutes ago, but what would I possibly get that wouldn't have any bad effects on me or those around me?"

"Think about it carefully," she said, "and word your wishes carefully, too. Better clarity makes for better results. But I can tell you now that I was speaking for myself and not your father when I said that those glasses must be terribly uncomfortable. And a strange feeling I can't quite identify tells me you would look better to the people around you without them."

David wondered what she meant by that "strange feeling," but he admitted, "Well, that's true, yes, these glasses bother me sometimes, especially when they hold heat in my face in hot weather and make me even hotter than I need to be."

"Well, maybe you want to make that your first wish," said Victoria, "Choose _something_, but choose it soon."

David imagined what it might be like to be without glasses and be able to see perfectly without them. He imagined more women being attracted to him as well, and suddenly he saw himself in the arms of a woman whose face he couldn't see, and whose voice he couldn't hear. He looked straight at the djiniri and asked, "I wish for my eyesight to be a perfect 20/20, so I don't have to wear glasses, or contact lenses, ever again."

Victoria smiled. "Done."

David's eyes suddenly seemed to cloud up and go fuzzy. At least that was the initial feeling. "Hey," he protested, "What did you do to me? My eyesight is worse now, not better!"

"That's because you are still wearing your glasses," said the djiniri calmly, "Take them off and see for yourself."

David removed his glasses and realized in a second that everything around him was perfectly clear and sharp, maybe even more so than when he wore his glasses. Perfectly amazed, he looked at her again, and saw that her beauty was even greater now than it was before. Putting aside the glasses, he profusely thanked the djiniri for her generosity.

"It is no problem," the djiniri said kindly, "I said I can grant anything, and I meant it. But every wish comes with a price, as I hope you know, and this wish is no exception."

David looked at her with nervousness again. "What sort of price?" he asked.

"Well, you will have to tell everyone who knows you how it is that you happen to see much better than you previously did, and without your glasses," she replied, "I'm certain your father will want to know, as well as your sister."

"But what will I say?" asked David, "That a genie improved my eyesight? Kristine would believe me, but my dad initially wouldn't, and then he'd find out that sis and I had tampered with his archaeological findings, and he'd be horribly mad. We might even be committed to a madhouse!"

"One of my previous wishers already knows how that feels," said Victoria in irony, "You'll just have to either hope for the best or tell a lie or two. Or, you could _wish_ for the world's understanding."

"Oh, no," David said promptly, "I can't do that. This is my problem. I can handle it. And I don't want to waste my other two wishes, either. I need to be careful what I wish for."

Victoria looked both sad and proud. "That will delay the prophecy for a while, I'm afraid, but I am glad you are wise with your wishes. The people of this age are far too careless with their wishing from what I have heard."

"The prophecy," David muttered, "That reminds me, I need to ask: Why is it so vital that you fulfill this prophecy? It doesn't sound like a good thing at all to me."

Now Victoria blinked, something she didn't do very often. "Why not?" she asked. "The Earth is in desperate need of being purified of the ugliness and evils that pollute its surface all over. Would you not like to have a Utopian world like God originally intended the Earth to be, free of all wars, problems and troubles?"

"Well, that does sound good," admitted David, "But the world has plenty of corrupt people who are in desperate need or desperate desire for redemption, not cleansing. If you wipe out all the people who are only partly corrupt but redeemable, you'll be doing a terrible disservice to the world! That's probably the reason Zoroaster locked you in that gem in the first place, as well as the evil djinn in the fire opal."

"I cannot believe this!" exclaimed Victoria, looking dismayed, "I have a mission and a prophecy of the utmost holiness to fulfill, and my Waker who must help me fulfill the prophecy is talking about sparing the corrupt in order to help them? That is so like a human to think of things like this! Do you not even care about what I stand for, human?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest," said David, "I care more about you, Victoria."

Victoria reacted in surprise. "What? Why would a _human_ have personal feelings for me?"

"It's quite simple," said David, "I feel sorry for you, Victoria, and maybe just a little for the evil djinn, too. Your only purpose in life is to be an immortal spirit, forever languishing in a void between the worlds, granting wishes, or purifying the Earth. You don't cherish the treasures of the mortals at all. You understand compassion for people in need, but you don't feel any intimate love with anyone, or feel the joy of lovemaking, or even the simple act of kissing and holding hands. You certainly don't know what it's like to have a family and have many people around you who love you for who you are. And the evil djinn, as horrible as he is, is also bound to grant wishes and is only interested in ravaging the world and destroying humanity."

Victoria was silent for several long moments. David could sense somehow, possibly by their connection between the Waker and the djiniri, that she was in some sort of inner conflict, torn between her duty and an offer to experience another way of living. She finally shook her head and said, "No! I cannot waste time with those things! I am a djiniri, and it is my duty to bring about the Day of Purification!"

David looked sad. He wasn't ready to admit it yet, but he found himself falling in love with this beautiful creature. She was so strong, so supple, and so sexy, and he had fallen even more in love with her immortal soul. He wondered if it was forbidden for humans and djiniri to have relationships. _Probably,_ he thought. _I could never hope to make an all-powerful being fall in love with me, even after wishing my glasses away._

As if to break the tension, they suddenly heard a scream from within the house. It came from Kristine's room.

"Krissy!" said David. "Wait here!" he said to Victoria, "I'll be right back!"

"No," said the djiniri, "I'm coming with you."

"But dad might see or hear you!" David objected.

"He is still under my sleep enchantment," said Victoria, "I am certain the screaming didn't awaken him. Besides, your sister has to know of my existence and my benevolence as well as you do, David."

"Oh, all right," said David, "But be careful what you say and do!" They ran down the hall and into Kristine's room. She was sitting up in bed, wide-awake. She was sweaty again, and she hugged the bedsheets to her chest.

"Krissy," said David, "Was it another nightmare?"

"How did you guess?" she said sarcastically, "I don't think I'll ever get a good night's sleep again at this rate." Then she noticed Victoria and the blue light that shone through her. David took note of the fact that she had reassumed her human form, which was equally as lovely as her true form.

"Aaahh!" Kristine cried in alarm at the sight of the djiniri and the light around her. "Wait," she asked when she had calmed down, "Are you the djiniri who came out of the sapphire?"

Victoria smiled politely. "Yes dear, I am."

"It's all right, Krissy," said David, "This djinn is a friend, not like the one you've been seeing."

Kristine sized her up and down. "Are you sure?" she asked cautiously.

"Of course I'm sure," said David, "I used a free wish to find out what her countenance is."

"A free wish? Then you've started wishing? Why aren't you wearing your glasses, by the way?"

"I wished for perfect vision so I wouldn't have to wear them anymore," said David.

"You _wished_ for that?" exclaimed Kristine. "Are you out of your mind? We can't afford to offer wishes to these djinn! They have terrible intentions for our world, remember?"

"Not this one," said David, "At least, it's because I'm going to be very careful with my remaining wishes. Relax, Krissy, I know what I'm doing. I think Victoria here can also help us defeat the evil djinn who's been troubling you."

"It has been a very long time since I was last in combat against an evil djinn," said Victoria uncertainly, "But I am still mighty powerful, and I will help you two in any way I can, and not just through wishes, if that is possible."

Kristine sighed with her own uncertainty. "All right, if you say so," she said, "You always win our arguments, David, and I'm getting tired of it. But I'll let this glowing lady help us if she's sincere."

"Thank you," said Victoria, "I do not blame you for not trusting me, young Kristine. The sorcerer, Zoroaster, trusted me even less than you do. But I am glad you're giving me a chance."

"We could use a few more answers about the evil djinn right now," reasoned David. "Kristine, when you have a chance tomorrow, could you see Dr. Marcus Jones again? We need a little more to go on about the evil djinn. I'm sure Victoria can tell us some things about him too, but I want to hear the point of view of folklore also, if we can."

"You can count on me, bro," Kristine said sleepily.

"Thank you," said David, "Now I'd suggest you and I get back to sleep and Victoria leave this house and this property before her slumber spell wears off and dad wakes up again. If he sees this, we'll have a _lot_ of explaining to do."

"Agreed," said Kristine, "Though I'm not sure if I'll stay asleep this time, either." Victoria nodded sagely. "I can come and go as I please," she said, "Do not worry about me."

In a moment, Victoria discreetly slipped out of the house as if she had never been there. Kristine and David went back to bed at once.

But Kristine wasn't the only one who had trouble sleeping the rest of the night. David was thinking about the djiniri, how beautiful she had been, in mind, heart and body, and about his sympathy for her enslavement to the void between the worlds. He even spent a little while massaging his member as he imagined her in bed with him in her human form.


	9. The Djinn Reveals Himself

_**Chapter 8: The Djinn Reveals Himself**_

* * *

The next morning, everything went mostly smoothly at the breakfast table. Howard voiced concern over Kristine looking like she hadn't been getting enough sleep lately after pointing out that she had little bags under her eyes. Kristine, however, just told her father that she had been having a recurring nightmare that just wouldn't go away, which was pretty close to the truth, and this seemed to satisfy him.

After brother and sister were on their way to the university again, Howard was privately worried about Kristine, and David, too. They had been acting a little strangely ever since the findings of those empty gold boxes in the Middle East, especially Kristine. It made him wonder if there was something they knew that they weren't telling him.

Suddenly, he had a suspicious feeling that maybe, they had been messing around with those cases the gold boxes had been stored in when he told them not to. He didn't have any proof, but he _did_ have a clue; when Michael had opened the boxes, they had both been empty, and that seemed unusual for something so meticulously put together and sealed shut. He made it a point to ask them about this subject sometime in the very near future, when he had a chance.

* * *

Class went by without any further incidents for Kristine, even though she _did_ have a funny feeling that _something_ had happened late in the morning, she just couldn't quite place a finger on what it was. David was just fine in his classes, too. But it wasn't until towards the end of the day that Kristine was finally able to get an appointment with Dr. Jones again. He sounded pretty gracious when he accepted her request for a talking-to.

"It's good to see you, young Kristine Daniel," Marcus said as she stepped into his office. "Please, have a seat."

"I don't mind if I do," said Kristine, who felt like she was lucky to have gotten an appointment in the first place, what with this being such a busy day. She sat in a chair opposite him at his desk.

"So, what can I do for you, Kristine?" asked Marcus.

"Um," said Kristine carefully, "Marcus, I was wondering, what were the differences between the good djinn and the evil djinn, the more specific differences, I mean?"

"What sort of specific differences, exactly?" asked Marcus.

"Well, I still remember what you told us about those two prophecies that the good and evil djinn want to fulfill, respectively, and that the evil djinn steal people's souls after granting them wishes," said Kristine, "But what sort of things do people go through after they make a wish to an evil djinn, both before and after their souls are stolen?"

Marcus smiled smoothly. "Well, I'm not sure if their souls are necessarily _stolen_," he said, "In a way, the djinn deserves that person's soul as _payback_ for the wish. You see, a djinn that is considered to be evil feeds off of human souls because he wants to gain strength and power before the prophecy is fulfilled, and he or she believes that the soul is a fitting payment for the wish, particularly considering that the majority of wishes granted by a djinn are selfish, vain, greedy, or just plain careless."

Kristine shivered. "Well!" she said, "That doesn't sound very generous to me!"

"Perhaps not," said Marcus, still smiling, "But don't you think such foolish wishes deserve to be punished in some form or other? God doesn't approve of sin at all, you know."

"Well, I'm familiar with the notion of Hell," admitted Kristine, "but that's a place that's controlled by the wrath of God and the tortures of the Devil and his demons. It's supposed to be a place of righteous punishment for sins, and there's the possibility of being redeemed of the need to go there by Jesus, or by another religious figure. Since when do the djinn, especially those who side with evil, get to just take a person's soul for their own under their own authority?"

"Look at it this way," said Marcus, the smile never flickering, "If the evil prophecy is fulfilled, the evil djinn will become like God and rule the Earth. That would give them all the authority they needed to play around with human souls."

Kristine frowned. "And exactly what sort of experiences do these captured souls go through?"

Marcus looked at the ceiling. "Oh, I don't know," he said, "But from what I've heard and seen, a soul would normally be strung up, whipped, boiled, partially skinned, half-grown into a hot wall, things like that. And the pain a soul would feel would be so intense that it would almost be like the center of Hell is believed to be by many Christians and Muslims." He licked his lips, as if in anticipation.

Kristine shook and shuddered. "That's horrible! Now wait a minute," she said, getting suspicious in her turn, "Why do you keep smiling like that while telling me a horror story about evil supernatural beings? And why did you lick your lips like that just now? Don't tell me you actually _enjoy_ thinking or reading about these sorts of things!"

Marcus merely shrugged and said, "It's interesting history, in my opinion, young Kristine. And I don't have to think about it or read about it, because I've _lived_ it. It's a _very good_ experience. How else do you think I could have seen it happen?"

Kristine blinked. "You've lived it? Now how can that be? Did you once lose your soul to a djinn-?" She stopped mid-sentence, as it suddenly hit her. She wasn't talking to Marcus Jones. She was talking to the djinn himself. She stood up as if her chair was on fire and bolted for the door, but it was locked. She couldn't open it.

"Take your seat," a voice that wasn't Marcus' said. She turned and there was another man standing behind the desk, dressed in a dark, gaudy suit.

"Please," he said, smiling again, gesturing to the chair. "I assure you, there are no thorns on that chair."

"Where is Marcus?" Kristine demanded through clenched teeth.

"In the closet," said Nathaniel, "But unless you have a flair for the gory, I wouldn't go in there if I were you. You see, I needed his face."

"You killed him, that's what you did," breathed Kristine.

"Not exactly," said the djinn, "Like I said, I needed his face, so I tracked down your lovely university and showed him my true form. He just couldn't take it. In fact, he got downright crazy! Then he wished that he wasn't so afraid of me when he knew so much about my kind, and then, well, things went downhill from there for him!" He laughed. "By the way, I wouldn't bother screaming if I were you, because it won't do you any good. I've temporarily soundproofed this office, so no one but me will hear you."

"You nutcase!" Kristine growled, "You fucking, goddamn nutcase!" Then, feeling guilty for taking the Lord's name in vain, even around an evil djinn, she made the sign of the cross and prayed for pardon.

Nathaniel frowned. "I see you know your religious stuff," he said, "I know a great deal myself. I also know what sort of trouble can be caused by curious archaeologists. After all, 'curiosity killed the cat,' you know. Now, where is that handsome father of yours, not to mention your smooth brother and that djiniri bitch he's most likely befriended by now?"

He knows about my brother, father and the other djinn already, she thought with worry. "I'm sure my brother and his remaining two wishes will help Victoria defeat you any day," she said quietly, "And if you do any harm to dad, I'll kill you personally!"

Without warning, the countenance of Nathaniel Demerest melted away, and Kristine found herself looking at the ugly monster that was the djinn's true form. She gasped. "Oh, dear God, no," she said, closing her eyes for a second in revulsion.

"I think you mean 'yes,' little one," he growled. "And you can't kill me. No mere mortal can kill a djinn. Now, let's get this over with. Make your three wishes. Anything you like."

"Anything?" Kristine asked nervously, not liking where any of this was going.

"Anything," confirmed the djinn, "You ask for it, and I must grant it. Think about it, Krissy." Kristine bristled at being called by her personal nickname by such a beastly thing. "A trip to Mars or Venus, perhaps, or the Moon. A vacation in one of the safer regions of the Arabic world."

"What if I wished you dead?" Kristine said.

The djinn looked irritated at that suggestion. "I've heard that one before," he said, "What irony that it has never worked before? Tell you what, Krissy; I'll get you into the spirit of the game, by giving you one 'free' wish, a sample of my power."

"All right, then," said Kristine, "Destroy yourself. Incinerate yourself. Right now!"

"Very well," said the djinn, and he raised his hands, summoning hot fire to consume him. But after several long moments of standing in the fire, he didn't burn up at all. He didn't even seem to be in pain.

"That which is immortal cannot die, fool," he said impatiently, "And djinn are born from fire. We cannot be consumed by it, because it is part of our living material. Now, make your three wishes."

Kristine was truly afraid now. She didn't see any way out of this, and the djinn probably wouldn't give her forever to make her wishes, even if he couldn't harm her. She broke into tears of near despair and prepared to jump into the fire herself to take her own life, in order to prevent the evil prophecy from being fulfilled. The fire was now burning the desk, and was starting to spread to other parts of the office. But when she entered it, she realized that she couldn't kill herself. The fire didn't harm her at all.

"My Waker cannot be affected by any destructive power until _after_ the prophecy is fulfilled," intoned the djinn. "Now, if you want my recommendation, I'd suggest that you use your first wish either to escape this office, or for me to put out the fire."

Kristine's face almost crumpled in despair at her situation, the fate of the world, as well as her own, and that of her brother and father, hanging on by a thread. Then, without thinking, she shouted, "Oh, I wish that Victoria the djiniri and David were here right now to get me out of this mess and away from this godawful creature!"

The djinn wasn't sure whether to be pleased or displeased by what she said, but he replied, "Done." Then, in the blink of an eye, there was Victoria East in her human form and David in the office with the two of them.

They reacted in surprise. "Krissy?" David said, "What happened? What's going on-oh, dear God!" he exclaimed as he saw the evil djinn.

Victoria laid eyes of contempt on her foe. "It is you, Nathaniel," she said in a strong voice. "In all my wildest dreams, I never thought one as evil as you would come to this world to fulfill the counter-prophecy."

"And I never dreamed that one of my own kind would come into the world to try to destroy me," snarled the djinn.

"Uh, can we get out of here now?" Kristine begged them, "I did wish that I could escape this horrible mess!"

"Of course, Kristine," said Victoria, and for a moment, she assumed her true form and, from her hands issued pure blue rays of fiery power at Nathaniel. The djinn retaliated by firing unholy red flames of his own at her. The two struggled for dominance. "Quick," Victoria said to David and Kristine, "Get out of here. Don't go back to your classes or stop to talk to anyone, not even your father, just get out of here and go straight home."

"Hold up," said David, "I want to help you or support you or something, maybe with my second wish!"

"Do as I say!" said Victoria sternly, "If he defeats me and you're still here, the situation will be even worse than it is now. Go!"

"But Victoria-" started David.

"Come on, David," Kristine insisted, "She's right. Let's move before we attract the attention of the whole campus!"

Finally, David gave way and ran through the hallways with his sister after Victoria knocked down the locked door with a shot of blue fire from one hand. Students and staff stared in surprise at their apparent panic. A few teachers and professors tried to order them not to run in the hallways, but to their chagrin the siblings continued to run until they were out of the building.

* * *

It took them a little while to get home, even at running speed, and they were panting when they finally reached their house. They hadn't ran into their dad at all when they fled the scene of the two djinn's fighting, and he wasn't home from work yet, either.

They sat down on the living room couch, and after catching their breath, Kristine said, "Well, I just made a fool of myself. I used up one of the evil djinn's three wishes. With more bad luck like that, the whole world could be in peril!"

"Relax, Krissy," said David, "Anyone would have done what you did, and you didn't have much of a choice in making that wish in the first place. Look at it this way: it's still a good wish in its own way, even _if _an evil djinn granted it. My first wish was self-serving; I think my first wish was more wasted than yours was."

"Well at least now, you can attract the hot women," said Kristine with a trace of sarcasm. "But I can't imagine what the rest of our wishes are going to be. I suppose one of us could wish for a weapon that can kill the djinn, but I don't know if that's even possible!"

They were startled by a sudden poof-like sound, and there was Victoria in the room with them.

"Well," she said as soon as she saw them, "I've incapacitated the evil djinn for now. It was quite a struggle, and I'm not altogether certain whether anyone besides you saw it happen, but Nathaniel has temporarily retreated, and you're safe for the time being. Of course, I'm not sure how safe other people are from his wish-granting powers. He already has two souls trapped in his gem, and he's always looking for more."

"This certainly is not good," agreed Kristine.

"I couldn't agree more," said David.

Suddenly, the front door slammed, and Howard rushed into the room before Victoria could vanish from sight.

"David! Krissy! Are you all right?" he said, "I saw you running like mad through the halls of the university. You left your books and things behind, so I brought them home for you. Wait a minute," he said with a start when he noticed Victoria, "Who are you? What are you doing in my house?"

"Your house? It happens to be partly theirs, as well," said Victoria straight-faced.

"Whatever," said Howard, "What _are_ you doing here? Kids, can you explain this if she won't?"

David and Kristine stammered for a minute. Howard remembered his suspicions, although he wasn't certain how they could be linked to this. "Have you been hiding something from me?" he demanded.

The djiniri held out her hand. "I believe this is one of two things they have been hiding from you, Howard Daniel." She was holding her sapphire in her hand.

"Two things?" said Howard, "How do you know my name is Howard? What the _hell_ is going on here?"

"I would not make light of the place of everlasting punishment if I were you," the djiniri said sternly.

"Stop quibbling with me already!" said Howard with mounting impatience. _"What is going on here?"_

David and Kristine knew that now they were resigned to the fact that they could no longer keep their secret from their father, though they wondered why Victoria would just give them away like that.

"Dad, let's sit down," said David, "We have a lot to admit to, and I can't promise you'll believe us when we tell it to you."


	10. Secrets and Desires

_**Chapter 9: Secrets and Desires**_

* * *

By the time David and Kristine had explained everything about their nosing around in the locked cases, discovering the gems, Rachel's death, and the presence of the two djinn's in the world, it would be putting it mildly to say that Howard was royally pissed and infuriated.

"And you're telling me that this fog witch called Victoria and another supernatural being are loose in the city, granting wishes and stealing souls from innocent people?" he seethed.

"_I _do not steal souls," Victoria corrected him. "The evil djinn does."

"I wasn't talking to you!" Howard yelled at her. Victoria frowned back at him mildly.

Kristine fidgeted in her seat. "Basically, that's it," she said in a small voice, "Although I don't know how the evil djinn knew about you, dad, honestly."

Howard glared at her. "And now this other djinn as you call him is threatening our lives as well as those of other people who make bad wishes? Is that it?"

David was surprised. "You mean, you actually believe us, dad?"

"Hey," said their father, "I saw that glow in this 'djiniri's' skin when I stepped into the room. If I know that was for real, then chances are you two aren't lying. You're honest, I'll hand you that. But do you have any idea of how few other people are going to believe this until it's too late? In this age, this sort of stuff is too far-fetched!"

"Dad, it doesn't matter how many people believe us," said Kristine, "Something needs to be done to stop that evil djinn from fulfilling his prophecy and bringing _all _the evil djinn to Earth to destroy it, with or without the backing of other people."

"And just how do you propose to do this?" Howard asked her sarcastically, "You told me yourself that these djinn are immortal and can't be destroyed. And apparently, the djinn are all-powerful, according to the legends, meaning they can do anything."

"I am a being of immense power myself-" started Victoria.

"I said I wasn't talking to you, witch!" Howard roared.

Victoria stood up to her full height and intoned, "I am no witch! Witchcraft is for humans, not the djinn, so don't call me that again!'

Howard recoiled, and Victoria said as she sat down again, "I think you need to hear me out, whether you want to or not, Mr. Daniel. "The djinn and I are on a virtually even keel with our supernatural powers, and I do have the power to stop him, but I need the help of my Waker, David, and that of his sister, Kristine, the Waker of Nathaniel. Both of them each have two wishes to go, and they must decide how to use them to undo the evil counter-prophecy and help me defeat the djinn, so that I can fulfill the good prophecy and purify the world like it needs to be."

"Oh, great, another prophecy," said Howard, "Don't you think the world has enough prophecies as it is? I don't want to be part of any Day of Purification, thank you very much. I love my children, even after what they did behind my back, but we can't just 'purify' it. That sounds too much like what Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao were doing with the citizens of their own nations, not to mention the victims of the Holocaust! The last thing this world needs right now, besides total destruction, is another purifier, especially one with super powers!"

"Actually, dad," said David, "that's exactly what I implied to Victoria myself when she told me about this. I don't want to see either of these prophecies fulfilled, because they'll both have dire consequences for humanity."

"I agree with David," offered Kristine, "We need to stop both of these prophecies, but I don't know how to go about doing it."

"There you humans go again," said Victoria disapprovingly, "Always telling the immortals that they cannot 'meddle in the affairs' of the mortals. I have a duty, and it's to fulfill the prophecy!"

"Can we talk about that later, Victoria?" asked David, "I think what I want to say is something that dad doesn't want to hear right now."

"If it isn't too much later, that is fine with me," said Victoria.

"Dad," said David reasonably, "I know you're mad as heck at us right now, but seeing as you still love us, can we call a temporary truce on this argument until Krissy and I can figure this out a little better? I have a feeling the two of us are the only people who can do anything about this, because we _are_ the Wakers, you know."

"Please, dad?" said Kristine, "We're so sorry we did what we did and didn't tell you till now, but David's right. It's him and me that the djinn depend on to do their work."

Howard put his face in his hands, and then ruffled his hair in frustration. Finally he said, "I don't like this, you know that, don't you. I don't like what you're getting yourselves, as well as the world, and my own life into. But seeing as you finally admitted what you did, I'll give you kids a chance to show that you can stop this thing, because you're so sure that you can do it."

"We're not _altogether_ sure that we can do it, dad," said David, "But if you have some faith in us, that's good enough for me."

"Me too, dad," said Kristine, "There must be a clever way we can use these wishes to stop the prophecies."

"And another thing," said Howard, "I don't mean to sound like I'm kicking you out of your own home, but I think that with the djinn wanting to corner you both, you should temporarily move into a hotel so that it's less likely that the djinn will get all of us at once. You need your protection as well as your wits to survive something like this."

"Are you sure, dad?" asked a surprised Kristine. "You won't have us to protect you from the djinn if he comes to the house."

"I don't need your protection," said Howard matter-of-factly, "And I certainly don't need _hers_," he frowned at the djiniri again. "I can take care of myself."

David and Kristine looked hurt by that. Howard repented of his anger at that moment and offered each of them a hug.

"I knew someday, you two would make me proud of you," he said, "although I never, in my wildest dreams, thought it would be in this way. Good luck, to both of you."

"Thanks, dad," said David and Kristine, respectively.

* * *

A couple of hours later, David and Kristine had checked into a two-bedroom room in the Red Roof Inn downtown. Victoria had elected to go with them, seeing as she was unwelcome in Howard's house for the moment. She helped David carry his luggage inside the room while Kristine carried her own, because after all, David was the Waker of the djiniri, not Kristine. She served David until he used up all his three wishes.

Inside, they unpacked and sat down on the bed in one of the bedrooms. Victoria sat in a chair by the table.

"Well," said Kristine, "What do we do now, just sit here?"

"I hope not," said David. "We'll need to be active as often as possible in order to prepare for the return of the djinn."

"There's no big hurry to take action, yet," said Victoria, "I can foresee that my incapacitation of Nathaniel will last until sometime tomorrow morning. But then he will be active again, and with a furious vengeance. We'll have to find him and stop him before he finds us, and before he steals too many more souls and traps them in his opal."

"I had no doubt of that," said Kristine, "I only hope that we can stop him before he gets too close to dad. We deserved what we got from him, but I still love him, and I don't want to see him put inside that ghastly gem."

"I _didn't _deserve what he gave _me_," mentioned Victoria.

"Victoria," said David, "You're just going to have to put up with that for a while. Not everybody in the world has reverence or even respect for holy beings, and you can't force them against their will to change their minds, you know."

The djiniri looked disappointed, but realized how right David was. "Perhaps you're right, David," she said submissively. "I had no idea how much this world has changed, and I was certainly never familiar with America before you awoke me."

David smiled at her kindly. Kristine offered an encouraging smile too, though she was trying to encourage herself more than Victoria.

* * *

That night, David and the djiniri were sitting by the windows in their room, gazing out at the night, as if by doing so, they could learn when the djinn would strike next. Kristine had gone to bed, saying that she was incredibly tired, and needed rest badly.

"Do you think he'll find us before we find him?" asked David.

"Quite possibly," said Victoria. "He can appear pretty much wherever he wants to, just like me."

David looked down. "I never thought that I would have to be a hero in my life, especially not a hero who has to defeat an evil supernatural being like the djinn. And I'm sure Krissy never thought it, either."

"I never did understand the concept of heroes myself," admitted Victoria, "As an immortal, omnipotent being, I always thought that spirits like myself, other djinn, and the angels, would provide all the heroism needed in the world. I never knew that mortal men and women can (or should) do deeds of great renown that could be called heroism."

"I didn't always believe this," said David, "but evidently, anyone can be a hero. All it takes is being in the right place at the right time, a little courage, and the conviction to do the right thing for others instead of just yourself. Countless men and women have done things like this throughout history. I'm not sure, but maybe even a djinn or a djiniri could be a hero in some way."

To the djiniri's surprise, David slowly moved his hand until he was touching her own hand on her knee. She wondered what he was getting at. More and more, she got the feeling that he meant it when he said that he cared about her, and now, whenever he gave her a certain look or touched her in a certain way, she had a strange feeling of her own, like part of her longed for more of this affection.

"I can't help noticing that you keep giving me looks and hand touches that look almost as if you desire something from me," she said. "Does this mean that you are ready to make your second wish?"

"Actually, yes, but not right this moment," David said quietly, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What about?" Victoria asked curiously.

"I told you last night about how you don't have any direction of your own in life, just a pre-destined purpose," said David. "Well, as good as most of the wishes are that you grant, it seems like you have an empty life, or even an empty existence, because you can't have the things God offers to the mortals."

"And what's your point, David?" Victoria inquired.

David blushed for a second. "From the moment I first saw you, I couldn't think of much other than how beautiful you are, both in your form as a djiniri and your human form. But as dazzling as you are in your true form, I find myself attracted to your human form even more so. I've always wondered since then how you acquired such beauty, and I've also wondered if you have any regrets over your 'duty' to this prophecy or to granting wishes." He hesitated for a moment, and then he let out his true feelings. "I care about my sister, my family, and the world very much, but I'm doing all of this for you, Vicki, including fighting against your prophecy. I love you. I always have, and I always will."

The djiniri had a look on her face one would never expect to see on a djiniri's face. Her mouth was wide open, and her eyes were glistening with tears. It was as if she had been hit with culture shock. "Why did you call me 'Vicki?' My name is Victoria."

David looked into her deep eyes. "It's your new personal name that I'm giving you," he said, "just like Kristine is 'Krissy.' 'Victoria' is just too formal. Vicki puts you on my level." He leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips. Vicki resisted initially, but she felt something, like a joyful instinct, egging her on to kiss him back. She did, and they both fell in love with each other.

"Now, for that second wish," said David, "I wish…that you would make love to me tonight, Vicki. And I want you to put as much passion into it as you can. Don't hold back or repress yourself."

The djiniri almost said that was a waste of a valuable wish, but she was as captivated by him as he was by her, and she gave in. "As you wish."

Suddenly, as she laid aside the sapphire and kissed David hard on the mouth, she was no longer the djiniri for one night. She was no longer Victoria, either. She was Vicki, an innocent young woman learning how to have sex with an incredibly handsome young man who loved her, and who she was starting to love in return. Not knowing what to do exactly, though, left her at an impasse. David agreed to guide her through it.

Excitedly but gently, he stripped Vicki of all her clothes, her jacket, shoes, slacks, blouse, and belt. Then he guided her hands over his body and explained that she was supposed to do the same thing with him. Vicki pulled off David's shirt, pants, shoes, socks, and underpants. Then they locked together in a hot embrace standing up, David showing Vicki what to do every place where she didn't understand what happened next.

To David's surprise, as he was finishing explaining what sex was all about, Vicki suddenly took over as the one in charge of the lovemaking. She pushed him onto the bed and straddled him at the waist. "Easy, honey," said David, "I didn't think you would be this good at sex."

"You wished for me to make love to you, David," she said perkily. "I'm granting your wish, and to do that, _I _have to be in control. Of course, feel free to take advantage of me all you want, too."

"Yes, ma'am," said David, and Vicki did something she had never done before: she laughed, a merry, tinkling kind of laugh. It was music to David's ears. With her help, he inserted his erection into her vulva, and she began to move and bounce on top of him in a figure-8 way, her lovely breasts bouncing with every bounce of her torso. David leaned up and sucked her nipples, one by one, hoping he could taste any milk that might be inside her breasts.

"You know," said Vicki, "I think my powers can also cause an orgasm unlike any you could ever feel with any woman, David." She kissed him again.

"If that's part of my wish, then I'd love to have it," said David.

And with that, Vicki bounced up and down again, her breasts and belly driving David crazy, until they felt the waves of their respective orgasms crash around them and they groaned and moaned in joyful delight.

"Sshh!" said David, "We don't want to wake Krissy."

Vicki giggled. "Of course not, baby," she said, looking with wonder to hear herself talking so much like a human now.

* * *

As the night passed by, David slept soundly with a relaxed smile on his face. Vicki lay beside him wide awake, her head filled with too many thoughts for her to sleep. She gazed at David and his handsome, sexy chest and belly. _So this is what it feels like to be in love_, she thought. _In the name of God, I truly never knew what I was missing. Look at him. He's so content and peaceful. It fills my heart with a gladness I thought only neutral djinn were capable of feeling._

But then she started to wonder something else. _I no longer feel like such a hallowed djiniri. I feel like I've just gotten involved in something the people of ancient times would consider carnal. But what can be done about it? Oh, for the first time in all my existence, I_ do _feel empty and without life, at least, until just now. Could it be possible, to stop being a djiniri and become human, maybe? It's always been a danger signal when an immortal becomes envious of the mortals assigned to her. And yet, here I am wanting to give up my immortality and be free of the shackles of a djiniri, not to mention that accursed sapphire. But I still need to defeat that evil djinn, too, and if I become human_ before _he's vanquished, I'll have no power over him, and I'll be vulnerable to the negative effects of his wish granting and his fire opal. Of what can be done about this?_

Vicki looked at David's smiling face and started to get reacquainted with her newly discovered sexual organs since she couldn't sleep, running her left hand over her breasts and flat belly while masturbating with her right hand.

_I wonder what it would be like to be mortal?_


End file.
